Final era of St. Paul City Conference football belongs to Central

By MATTHEW DAVIS

Central’s football state tournament hopes came to an abrupt end with Simley cruising in the Class 5A Section 5 championship game, but Minutemen still completed a historical run.

With a 4-0 record in the St. Paul City Conference, the Minutemen won their seventh-consecutive conference championship, a league record, in the final year before district football arrives in Minnesota. Key players such as senior running back and captain Garrett Gardner made the final installation of the run possible with 18 touchdowns during the season. Junior captain and center Ethan Levin led a young offensive line with no seniors that blocked for Gardner and their other running backs all season.

Jamal Galato and Jakobi Jackson likewise benefitted with five and six TDs respectively. Gardner and Galato let the Minutemen defense with 88 and 83 tackles respectively. Gardner and Abdikalak Muse both got to the quarterback often with seven sacks.

An unbeaten mark in the conference kept another streak alive besides the championships. The Minutemen have not lost a conference contest since 2009.

Their dominance of the St. Paul City Conference has resembled that of Cretin-Derham Hall in the late 1990s and early 2000s before the Raiders departed for the Suburban East Conference. However, unlike the Raiders, the Minutemen have no state tournament trips to go along with their seven-year reign.

Central coach Scott Howell said the, “season as a whole was a success, but we came up short of our goal of going to state. We played a lot of young players outside of Gardner and Jackson which should bold well for the future.”

New district system to alter scene in 2015

A new-look regular season slate come 2015 could also bode well in getting ready for postseason play. Central and former conference neighbor Como Park will play in the Twin City District next year. That district has mostly teams from the St. Paul City, Minneapolis City and Tri-Metro conferences.

The Minnesota State High School League decided to have football move to districts to aid scheduling for games and create more competitive matchups. During the past seven years, Central has traveled as far as Fairmont and Waseca for non-conference games.

Under the district system, teams can only schedule crossover district games with the MSHSL’s permission. Central and Como could still have a ways to travel with teams in the district—as far away as Westonka (Mound-Westonka) and Elk River (Spectrum).

The Minutemen could continue their success in the new district with few 5A teams among the 28 squads. St. Croix Lutheran, a Class 4A powerhouse, will provide the biggest challenge.

“District will be good for us because we look at getting consistent competition from week to week which should help us during playoffs,” Howell said.

Minneapolis schools Washburn, Southwest and North have also had strong teams in recent years. The Minutemen beat the Millers 29-15 this year in the final set of Minneapolis and St. Paul City Conference crossover games.

For Como, a program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2009, it means they can schedule more evenly-matched games. Minneapolis teams such as South, Edison and Roosevelt have posted losing records in recent years and could make for competitive games. The Cougars edged Roosevelt 10-6 this year in the playoffs. Besides the Minneapolis schools, suburban teams such as Spectrum, New Life Academy and Concordia Academy have struggled in recent years.

With the regular season changes coming for 2015, section alignment will remain the same. That will again pose a challenge for Central to get over the section tournament hump into state, but their St. Paul City Conference dominance could continue in district form.­