heimer wrote:The people that are saying Shanley will win by 50 are the same people that said they could name the score against Valley City a week ago. The game was 17-0 with 3 minutes left of the third quarter.
I believe Shanley is the favorite, handily. I like their head coach alot. I have not seen anything that would lead me to the conclusion that they are "all stuck up" as was presented earlier in the thread. But, since a couple of bad seeds are inflating the Deacon image here, I feel compelled to respond in a way that presents an opposite opinion.
Myth: Shanley will win by 50.
Fact: No one in Region I has the line that Devils Lake has, so Shanley likely has not seen it this year. The Firebirds will use that line to keep the ball from the Deacon offense. Valley City moved the ball well against Shanley last week, and Grafton put 30 on the board with a boot-strap team due to injury, so Shanley's defense is not spotless. If Devils Lake controls the ball, the game will be good.
Myth: Shanley would win consistently at the AAA level.
Fact: After seeing all of the teams that were ranked at one point this season in AA, save Trinity, I have yet to see any team, save Shanley, that would beat any team in the EDC. Outside of Shanley, current AA would go winless against current AAA, no matter the matchup, location, whatever. Shanley would perhaps win a few games, maybe even a playoff spot, but they would have been on the road in the first round and out immediately.
Shanley has done everything right the past few years. They accepted their role as a AA school. They used their success to drive influence for a field, and a very nice field, that admittedly, was in the works before last year. Steve Laqua is a great coach, and the players have accepted their roles in the system. They are a great AA team. I don't think we need to go much farther than that, and to do so, really perverts the view of what they accomplished these past two years.
1) This was some pretty good analysis overall. Great effort by Devils Lake, and congrats to Shanley.
2)
The underlined comment is not a fact but an opinion, and a very flawed one at that. I bet you didn't get to see a single EDC regular season game this year.3) My opinion is similar to heimer's - I think Shanley would have been competing for a #3 or #4 seed in the EDC at best, and I don't believe they could've defeated a BHS or Century on the road in the playoffs. I did hear some chatter this year that Shanley was the best team in any division. That was nonsense. I see them as clearly being a notch below South, West Fargo, Bismarck and Century. I think most people would also agree that Shanley would not be a AAA doormat. They'd be competitive in most games.
4) Given what we have just seen in the AA championship game, my opinion is that Devils Lake also could hang in with most of the AAA teams with the exception of the top four. I think they'd beat a team or two in the east and in the west.
Do any of these AA/AAA division observations matter? Well, I'd say no, but Devils Lake is moving up to AAA football for the next two years in a move that the NDHSAA sees as necessary but others have questioned. Some people are looking at this with the mindset that the Firebirds are going to be sacrificial lambs in AAA. I even think some in Devils Lake believe that, and that rubs me the wrong way.
For one, the lines between the divisions aren't so clear cut and rigid. The cream of the crop in A (Velva, Watford, M-NS, Cavalier) could compete with almost all of AA. I don't think they'd beat Shanley or DL, but I'd give them a chance against any other team. Likewise, Shanley and DL could compete with most of AAA.
More importantly, the Devils Lake naysayers are failing sports psychology 101. Build your kids up and get them to buy in and believe that they can compete! I'm not sure that the AAA title is a realistic goal for DL next year, but how about .500 and a playoff berth? If DL could achieve that next year, they should be just as proud as they are of this year's state runner-up team.
Devils Lake has built a strong program with good numbers on the roster and plenty of success on the field. I hope they enter AAA with the same approach and enthusiasm for the game. If they do, they'll be just fine in AAA.