Minneota quarterback Alex Pohlen had an eye on his receivers as Mitchell Rost laid a block on a Springfield defender. The action came at the Tracy scrimmage last Saturday. The Vikings open the season at home Thursday against Sleepy Eye.

Sleepy Eye the first Viking foe

There are two high school football teams in Sleepy Eye — but the public school is not the one with the football tradition.

While Minneota will open the season at home Thursday against Sleepy Eye Public — the Indians’ cross-town rivals, the Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s Catholic School Knights, have moved off the public school’s schedule.

That’s because the Knights are now playing nine-man football. Indians Head Football Coach Cory Haala said that not playing the Knights is not that big of a concern. “The fans and the parents make a little bit bigger deal out of it as far as a rivalry,” he said.

“We could be playing nine-man football — we have had nine-man numbers for quite some time — but we chose to stay 11-man,” Meanwhile, the Knights, coached by Brent Kucera, brother of former St. Edward Catholic Church Priest Jeremy Kucera, says his team has moved on.

“Some people may argue that we would be better off playing nine-man. But we have done surveys and talked to players and our coaching staff and we feel we want to continue to play 11-man football,” said Coach Haala.

The Indians coach added, “That is the choice that we made and we are content with that. Our numbers are just over 40 kids so those are 11-man numbers at this point in time. We may re-evaluate it in two years but this is where we are at for now.”

Meanwhile, Coach Kucera said it’s going to be strange not playing traditional rivals like New Ulm Cathedral and Sleepy Eye High School.

He added, “We are going to miss playing them especially because of the traveling distance,” he said.

“The players always liked those games. But we still do have Cedar Mountain and BLHS. Mankato Loyola (now nine-man) has been a strong rivalry. And we will look forward to playing good teams like Cleveland and Madelia. We will reform rivalries.”

Sleepy Eye Public was 2-7 last year and 0-9 in both 2015 and 2013. In fact, their record over the past 10 years is 22-68. Minneota, 10-1 last year and 36-1 in the past three years, will host the opening game at 7 p.m. at K. P. Kompelien Field.

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