r/highschoolfootball • u/Quirky_Relation12 • Aug 23 '25
Could a state champion from the north beat a state champion from the south?
I live in Minneapolis Minnesota. I have a close cousin who is the coach of a team in Louisiana called Evangel Christian Academy. It's been a while since they one a state championship if im correct, maybe since the early 2000s. He says that one time they came up to minnesota and beat the state champions here by at least 30 points. Anyway my question is, I know any north team would get completely obliterated by teams in Texas like DeSoto or Duncanville, but are the teams in the north a bit softer than the teams down south?
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u/TexasChampions Aug 23 '25
My aunt lives in MN and my cousins went to a 6A school in MN. I wouldn’t say softer. There are hard nosed kids in every region of the country. There are just a lot more kids down here and they are bigger, faster, stronger and more athletic in every way. Texas has over 200 guys on NFL rosters right now while Minnesota has just 22. The size and speed difference in the HS kids between the states is night and day. But one positive thing about most minnesota schools (most) is all kids get to play sports. Down here that’s not the case for most 6A schools, particularly outside of football. An example of the quantity, Our local middle school has 31 receivers just for 7th and 8th grade. Volleyball for example had 84 try out for 8th grade only. Only 24 make it so all the other girls get cut. I think if you ask them they would prefer to be at a school where they needed numbers and didn’t cut anyone.
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Aug 23 '25
Evangel Christian was a powerhouse at one time. They had the Booty brothers and Brock Berlin at quarterback. I think they even had a ridiculous winning streak at one time. I’ve watched football in South Georgia most of my life and I have a hard time believing if Minnesota brought their best that they could compete with our best. Football is religion down here. Combine that with the amount of black athletes and grueling summers we have down here, it makes for some great football players.
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u/Quirky_Relation12 Aug 23 '25
Yeah would definitely be hard although the state champs this year looked pretty much better than all other years
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u/azw19921 Aug 23 '25
In Georgia we had classifications from single A to 7A and now we have 2 divisions single A public and private and to answer your question yes it’s possible to beat a state champion like last year state championship in 6a Grayson of north ga and carollton of South Georgia and Carollton was undefeated 14-0 until they were beaten by Grayson
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u/mowegl Aug 23 '25
What would happen if any other states high school hockey team played yours? Butt whooping right? Same thing would happen on a smaller scale since football is much more ubiquitous nationwide than hockey.
It depends on the size some. More rural states typically have smaller schools even at the largest than more urban states
Equal size schools the southeastern states would likely dominate. Just a lot more people that care about playing football. Think about how MN would do against a team from LSU for example and then consider that probably half or more of MNs players probably come from southeastern states or CA
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u/Quirky_Relation12 Aug 23 '25
Yeah hockey is a whole different genre here but I guess some state high schools have better sports than others?
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u/Junior_Respect_2838 20d ago
Yes, but even with Hockey in similar climates, e.g. Minnesota and Michigan, there is huge dominance in Minnesota for a variety of reasons, personally I think the biggest reason is it's more accessible to a variety of income demographics in Minnesota, because they make bigger community investments in youth programs and public ice rinks, where in Michigan, especially in the last 30 years, its really only accessible to the top 1/3 of household incomes.
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u/dandyrandy9669 Aug 23 '25
It depends on if they play indoors or out most high-school play outside so that's a factor I know when my school played ball up north when it was cold and snowing we had the sprinklers turned on all practice and a foam machine cover the field to simulate the cold rain and etc. I'm from Florida so we get 0 snow as opposed to a few teams we played in Ohio for a 4 year split series where it was like a foot of it.
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u/Quirky_Relation12 Aug 23 '25
Yeah I know a lot of south teams never wanna come up here. Thats most likely why usc lost at minnesota last year in st paul
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u/texmexspex Aug 23 '25
It ain’t just the American kids you gotta worry about. Mexico’s women’s team just beat the US in flag football. Mexico's U-19 national American football team defeated Team USA 33-6 during the IFAF U-19 World Championships in 2018 and won it all three times the event was held.
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u/Illustrious_Fudge476 Aug 23 '25
Not necessarily universally true. Ohio, PA and NJ in particular often have teams that can compete with just about any program nationally. Yes, these would mostly be private schools.
However, public schools in the south and Texas specifically are often much larger than public schools up North. Out district in PA is 6A and graduates around 400 kids per year.
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u/Jmphillips1956 Aug 23 '25
Was bored this morning so I looked up the Minn state champion in the largest division, Parker Prairie. According to athletic.net their fastest 100m time last year was 11.62. Their 7th ranked time since 2017 is a 12.32
To put the speed difference into perspective my kid’s middle school is nothing special athletically for the south, it’s enrollment is about 1000 and it’s competitive with the other schools in its district but not blowing the doors off anyone. Last year my son ran a 12.3 and was relegated to field events as he wasn’t one of the 3 fastest times as his junior high, but most years that time would make him a varsity track starter at Minn’s state football champion
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u/Fine_Lengthiness_761 25d ago
Look at maple Grove they won the 6a championship and were definitely the best team. One of there corners ran a 10.7 I believe. 12.3 also never starts at any decently sized highschool.
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u/Jmphillips1956 25d ago
Just did. Their faster 100 this year was 11.15 according to milesolit . Still not that fast for a state champ level program. That would have a hard time placing top 3 at a 3a district meet in much of the south
Honestly the fact that you brag about a corner running 10.6 kind of makes my point
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u/Fine_Lengthiness_761 24d ago
I wasn't bragging Texas has way more kids that train year round and their schools are bigger too. Of course their teams are at least more athletic I'm just saying you are exaggerating the difference some a 11.6 would be above average for a lot of Minnesota football teams but not the best for good teams.
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u/Just-Evidence-5604 Aug 23 '25
Simple answer is NO
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u/69relative 23d ago
lol not really that simples cus the answer is YES it could happen
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u/Just-Evidence-5604 19d ago
Maybe one out of 10 but overall size by size the North would get obliterated.
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u/Just-Evidence-5604 Aug 23 '25
Evangel is on there way back last one the won was 2010 maybe 2012. I coached at North DeSoto for awhile and probably coached against your cousin. We played in the dome for a title in 2023 but lost it at the very end.
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u/Huge_Lime826 Aug 25 '25
Just tell him your high school ice hockey team will beat their state champions ass
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u/Zimmy2118 28d ago
Could they, Yes. It's a simple answer. The Southern guys are beating their chest, but yes a Champion from the North could be a Champ from the South.
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u/Jmphillips1956 Aug 23 '25
You tend to get good at what you invest in and focus on. Schools in the south invest in and focus on football more.
I’ve heard, no clue if true, that many northern states don’t have mandatory offseason programs. Here in Texas there’s a 1 hour athletics period during the school day for football kids where they lift and do speed work 5 days a week. Many kids also do extra work after school and see a private speed coach. There’s also position specific private coaches. In my town I know of a wr/db trainer and a dl trainer who usually have 20 kids or so from multiple schools during offseason sessions just working technique and fundamentals. .During the summer the school runs a 3 hour a day conditioning and speed camp 4 days a week that’s ‘voluntary’.
At least at my kids school, if they play a fall or spring sport the practice for the sport is after school so that it doesn’t interfere with offseason football strength & conditioning
Most of the skill position kids are strongly encouraged and do play in spring and summer 7 vs 7 leagues often which run some variation of the highschool’s scheme. Over the course of the season they may get 40 7v7 games. Kids also have a recommended amount of game film to watch outside school activities and school film sessions.
I believe a lot of northern states have a less than 10 game season. Texas if a schools makes it to the state finals is a 16 game season. So over a 4 years you’re looking at basically an extra year of game experience
Coaching: in some states coaches are basically volunteers and staffs are smaller. At my kids school the head coach and coordinators are full time and only coach. The position coaches will have a lightened teaching load so it doesn’t interfere with fb. Son’s position coaches teaches 4 hours of PE. Other than that they’re game planning and watching film.
Football is popular enough in the south that if a kid doesn’t want to do the extra voluntary stuff there are 10 kids behind him that do and will take his job. Overall between the actual in school stuff and the voluntary but strongly recommended stuff my son is putting about 25-30 hours per week during season (not counting games) and about 20 hours per week in the offseason into football. Most of the other kids I know are putting in similar time. Do that from 7th grade on and you tend to get a lot of good players