by rep » Sun Jun 04, 2006 5:02 pm
when i did an interview with linton's tyson bodvig last fall i asked him the biggest difference between 9-man and the class a 11-man and he said it was the difference in play between a speed game and a power game.
in 9-man it is all about speed. get to the outside and you are gone. in 11-man the game is plugged up with a few more players and it is more of a power game.
that said, a team like napoleon, runs a '3 yards and a cloud of dust' type of offense where they are bigger than you and they are going to run the ball. they had a pretty respectable season, losing to the eventual state champion richland squad in the playoffs.
i agree there is no difference between a and aa. basically when i was in high school in the mid to late 90s at mayville (which is class a now) we played carrington, central cass, grafton, lisbon, oak grove, rugby and valley city (who are all class aa) along with lamoure and kindred (both class a). maybe things have spiraled out of control since i graduated, but i kind of doubt it.
i agree with the depth completely. most 9-man teams have little to no depth and one or two injuries can cripple a team. at the class aaa level, if i had to guess there is probably one to three injuries on the team per game and they just keep trucking along.
at class aaa a real legit athlete may be able to break a game, but certainly not in the same way that someone like a tyson bodvig (for example) put up rediculous-video-game-type stats. bodvig averaged something like 50 yards a punt return (i'm pulling that off the top of my head and so it might not be quite accurate) and that is probably unheard of stat-wise for class aaa. what did dressler put up return wise in high school? he is the first person that comes to mind that may have put up something comparable, yardage wise.
coaching wise, i don't know if there is a drastic difference in ability offensively. it isn't like running the option or a pro-style running game is ground-breaking. there are only so many ways to get a running back the ball. passing-wise, i don't know how a team's playbook from say richland would stack up against a team from class aaa...if there are any players out there that could offer input, that would be helpful.
defensively, there might be a bit more to a class aaa strategy when it comes to linebackers and stuff, but it all depends on who you are facing i would think.
athletes are athletes regarless of the class and good football is good football. i have no doubt in my mind that a 9-man kid could hang with a class aaa kid, and maybe a team could do the same on a given year and if properly motivated, but for the most part, the longer you keep throwing fresh kids with speed at a team that is getting tired, the better your chance to win.