AA Season Preview and Tidbits
The 2019 AA Football season is upon us! As always there are teams that look like clear-cut favorites and teams that look as though they’ll be facing an uphill battle. The beauty of high school football is that we’re dealing with a bunch of teenagers and nothing is guaranteed until the final whistle blows. Read on to see how I think things will play out this week!
Week 1 Match-ups…
Capital @ Senior
CMR @ Helena High
Glacier @ Skyview
Sentinel @ GFH
Belgrade @ Butte
Bozeman @ Flathead
West @ Big Sky
Hellgate BYE (scheduled to play Bozeman Westslope beginning next season)
Minty’s Predicted Winners…
Senior
Helena High
Glacier
GFH
Butte
Bozeman
West
Hellgate
What To Watch For…
- Belgrade joins the AA fray this season and faces a stiff test right off the bat in Butte, which is led by Montana State signee, Tommy Mellott. We’ll see how a former A squad handles it’s first taste of AA football.
- Perennial favorite Bozeman, said to be loaded again this year, travels to Kalispell with revenge on the mind as they take on a Flathead squad that knocked them out of the playoffs in Bozeman last season. The Hawks will be without All-Stater McCade O’Reilly, who suffered a leg injury and is out indefinitely.
- The Hellgate Knights open the season with a forfeit victory as Bozeman Westslope will not field a football team until the 2020 season. The Knights are lead by all-everything QB/S Rollie Worster and are primed to make some noise in the AA this year. Westslope will jump in feet first next year with a full varsity schedule.
- Can Helena High take advantage of one more year of beefed up numbers before East Helena High and the Vigilantes take their slice of the pie next year? The Bengals have come close to securing a state title in recent years and it’ll only get tougher as some of their student population transitions over to East Helena High.
- Will the West High Golden Bears, led by returning starters Josh Erbacher (QB) and Demarcus Carr (RB), take home another trophy this year? They make the long trek to Missoula to take on the Big Sky Eagles on opening night where they’ll be the heavy favorites.
Minty Tidbits…
- Apples to Oranges: Bozeman had the AA’s highest reported enrollment for the 2017-2018 school year at 2,167 students while Missoula Big Sky came in at the lowest with 1,135. Bozeman Westslope can’t open sooner.
- According to MHSA archives, Butte High has 636 wins all-time with Great Falls High coming in second at 427.
- How about this from the MHSA archives: Dawson County (Glendive) owns the top two spots for most points scored in a game. Back in 1919, the Red Devils hung 144 on Custer County and then dropped 137 on New England! Man, the Patriots were a mess on D before Belichick arrived.
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About the Author
Minty Coach A proud native of Great Falls, Coach now resides in Missoula, however he's a Bobcat to the core.
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