With Christmas falling in the middle of the week in 2019, it knocked two days off the viewing schedule. Luckily there was one contest on Monday. Friday was full of games & it was a marathon session at St. Cloud Tech with twelve teams knocked off the list. Saturday promised to be another big haul.
Saturday, I left bright dark & early due for Rochester. It was sprinkling when I left the garage. By the time I hit my fast food franchise for breakfast it was raining–ice. By the time I reached 694 & Lexington I was swerving and shimmying. It was at this juncture I turned tail & headed home. The roads were not crowded at that stage, but folks were only going 20 mph & for good reason. Retracing my steps, I saw seven cars in the ditch, and that was 20 minutes later in some cases. When I pulled into the garage my car was caked in ice.
So this journey to Rochester was shelved. But to be honest the Rochester Rotary Tournament is cut up all wrong (for a writer). It features three courts and odd start times. It was doubtful I would be able to get full games in for any of the teams on the list. It just means my quest for 100 (and all AAAA teams) took a severe hit. The window is narrow. I am at 61 of 62 AAA, and I have been to all 62 AAAA schools.
QRF Top 100
| Level | Seen | % |
| 1-10 | 7 | 70.00 |
| 1-25 | 18 | 72.00 |
| 1-50 | 30 | 60.00 |
| 1-75 | 43 | 57.33 |
| 1-100 | 54 | 54.00 |
| 1-125 | 64 | 51.20 |
NEW
It isn’t often I get to a new site. This was the case for me twice this week. Maple River (in Mapleton) was a first time gym for me on Monday. To give you an idea I now have seen 15 of the 17 gyms in section 2AA with only Tri-City United (ironically the team Maple River faced) and Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton yet to go.
Friday was my first time at the new St. Cloud Tech. The only AAA school I have yet to visit in my years of travels is Bemidji. The reason for that is if I can see the Lumberjacks closer to home I grab it. Four hours up and back takes a toll.
SEEDING THE STATE
At this stage, with a third of the season done, it appears that AA will have a competitive, wide open tournament.
AAAA
1 Hopkins #6
2 Farmington #1
3 Park Center #5
4 Rosemount #3
5 St. Michael-Albertville #8
6 Chaska #2
4 Stillwater #4
8 Andover #7
AAA
1 DeLaSalle #4
2 Becker #5
3 Holy Angels #6
4 Red Wing #1
5 Marshall #2
3 Simley #3
7 Alexandria #8
8 Hermantown #7
AA
1 Sauk Centre #6
2 Fergus Falls #8
3 Rochester Lourdes #1
4 Minnehaha #4
5 New London-Spicer #3
6 Waseca #2
7 Holy Family #5
8 Duluth Marshall #7
A
1 Minneota #3
2 Cromwell-Wright #7
3 Mayer Lutheran #4
4 Walker-Hackensack-Akeley #5
5 Waterville-Elysian-Morristown #2
6 Henning #6
7 Blooming Prairie #1
8 Warren-Alvarado-Oslo #8
UNBEATENS
Eight teams dropped off the unbeaten list taking the totals from 21 to 13. Of course, when two unbeatens meet only one survives. That was the case with Hopkins v Park Center. Minneapolis South fell two times at Roseville. All the others dropped games at tournaments. It should be noted that Hopkins has given three teams their only loss. Also, Hopkins has faced 11 ranked teams. Still Hopkins is only #4 in the QRF. Why is the QRF unable to take those facts into account for their rankings?
Dropping in week 6: Minneapolis South, Park Center, Hermantown, Duluth Marshall, Pine City, Winona Cotter, Henning, Warren-Alvarado-Oslo
AAAA: 1: Hopkins
AAA: 3: Marshall, Red Wing, Richfield
AA: 5: Holdingford, Mesabi East, New Life, Pelican Rapids, Spectrum
A: 4 Hancock, Hills-Beaver Creek, Minneota, Waterville-Elysian-Morristown
How many will be unbeaten at the end of March? One, possibly two.
STREAKING
There are new leaders in AA with Winona Cotter’s loss.
AAAA: 43 Hopkins (32+11)
AAA 11: Red Wing
AA 10: Mesabi East, Sauk Centre
A 10: Waterville-Elysian-Morristown
NUMBERS
| Week 6 | W | L | PP100 |
| Overall | 11 | 11 | 83.50 |
| W | 11 | 0 | 94,33 |
| L | 0 | 11 | 72.59 |
| Monday | 1 | 1 | 80.88 |
| Thursday | 2 | 2 | 85.88 |
| Friday | 8 | 8 | 83.29 |
| AAAA | 3 | 0 | 99.09 |
| AAA | 3 | 5 | 79.79 |
| AA | 5 | 5 | 82.29 |
| A | 0 | 1 | 77.78 |
HIGH: Spring Lake Park v St. Cloud Tech 121.9
BEST DPP100: Anoka v St. Cloud Apollo 45.6
Week 1 88.4
Week 2 82.1
Week 3 75.27
Week 4 75.9
Week 5 83.79
Week 6 83.50
31 CLUB
Duluth East entered three players in the 31 Club with their win over Rocori. Annandale was the other school with multiple entrants with two. For two of this week’s entrants, it was their second time on the list.
| 31 CLUB Week 6 | 13 |
| 41 CLUB | 2 |
| GRAD CLASS 2020 | 6 |
| 2021 | 5 |
| 2022 | 1 |
| 2023 | 1 |
| HS CLASS AAAA | 4 |
| AAA | 2 |
| AA | 7 |
| W | 7 |
| L | 6 |
HIGH: Sydney Manthana, Rockford 47—also reached 1000 points in the loss to Foley.
WEEK 1: 26
WEEK 2: 20
WEEK 3: 18
WEEK 4: 6
WEEK 5: 9
WEEK 6: 13