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District denies Minneapolis Souths bid to switch to Lake

By Star Tribune, 08/07/12, 11:40PM CDT

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The school accepted the decision and will continue to play football in the Minneapolis City Conference.

The Minneapolis School District officially denied South High School's request to move its football program to the powerful Lake Conference in the 2013 season. But school officials say they're going to continue their efforts to strengthen its football program.

District Athletic Director John Washington and his assistant Dave Wicker delivered the final decision to South athletic director Mark Sanders and football coach Lenny Sedlock on Friday.

"At this time, the Minneapolis Public Schools is not interested in having [South] leave and go to the Lake Conference and play," Washington said Tuesday. "We will still play games with them. But as far as abandoning our conference, nothing like that."

The district had first indicated its opposition a month ago. A meeting with Lake Conference officials since then did little to impress Washington and his team.

Lake Conference football coordinator Dan Johnson of Hopkins said the Minneapolis district informed him that a schedule cross-over deal was already in the works to have city schools, including South, play games with the St. Paul City Conference.

"We're not going to interfere with what goes on in their district and school. These are big school districts and they extend way beyond athletic programs," Johnson said.

South administration respectfully accepted the decision filtered down from its superintendent, but Sanders said plans to strengthen its program haven't been completely foiled. School officials will continue to search for ways that will either place the school against better competition or change its Class 6A status, which puts it with the state's largest schools.

In response to the news, Sanders and his bosses considered approaching the Minnesota State High School League with a request to drop the school to a different classification level.

"There are still some discussions to be had," Sanders said. "Hopefully something can come from it. We thought [playing in the Lake Conference] would be good not just for Minneapolis South, but for the whole city."

JASON GONZALEZ

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