A few area high school teams began their seasons last week, but the bulk have been practicing in and counting down the days until their first game.

Monday, August 30, 1999

A few area high school teams began their seasons last week, but the bulk have been practicing in and counting down the days until their first game. The wait ends this week with volleyball teams taking the court for the first time on Tuesday and Thursday, football squads hitting the gridiron on Thursday and Friday, and cross country runners lining the trails on Friday.

Volleyball players and coaches have good reason to anxiously anticipate 1999. It is the first year of a three-class state tournament, and the way the new sections are drawn, almost all the area teams have high hopes.

The four schools in Class A – Austin Pacelli/ Lyle, Southland, Grand Meadow and LeRoy-Ostrander probably have the highest hopes. They are, for the first time, competing against schools of comparable size, not against schools that could be four or five times as large.

The players and coaches at these schools believe if things go their way they could be playing in the Minnesota State Tournament. That is a far cry from years past when they knew a stone wall stood in their way – the Stewartville Tigers.

The Tigers have made the trip to state for 10 straight years and 11 of the last 12. They finished in third place last year and are ranked No. 2 in Class AA at the start of this season.

That leaves Section 1A wide open for the taking. No one from the section made it to the state last year and the only team in the section ranked in the Associated Press Preseason Poll is Mabel-Canton in 10th. The top team in the state is defending Class A champion Central Minnesota Christian.

The hopes of the Hayfield Vikings and Blooming Prairie Awesome Blossoms are also high. They both will be competing in Class AA. In the past, those teams have also come up against the Tigers and this year they will not because they both teams move over to Section 2AA where they will compete against Blue Earth Area, last year’s section winner and Belle Plaine, ranked seventh in ’99. Most of the powers, however, in this class are in Section 3AA. Nine of the 12 teams ranked in the preseason poll come from the section with No. 1 ranked Jackson County Central leading the way.

The Austin Packers also catch a break in their section assignment in Class AAA. Eagan, the Section 1 and 1998 State Champion and this year’s No. 1 ranked team, has been bumped from their section into Section 3AA.