Eden Prairie Changes Conference Not Traditions

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn - There is not a high school football team in Minnesota that stirs up more discussion and opinion than the Eden Prairie Eagles. There is one constant with head coach Mike Grant’s teams, they just win. Consider that since the 2004-2005 season, the Eagles have compiled a 72-5 record, played in three state championship games and have been a dominant force in big school football in the land of 10,000 lakes.

Coming off a 16-5 loss to Cretin-Derham Hall in last years AAAAA title game, the Eagles return a talented backfield including senior quarterback Brian Athey and junior running back Andrew Larson.

Athey led the team under center as a junior working his way to the state title game. He completed 12 of 16 passes in the championship game against Cretin Derham Hall.

As a sophomore, Larson saw his carries increase as the season went along. He carried the ball a total of four times in the first two regular season games and carried a season high 29 times for 175 yards in a 21-0 win over Eastview.

Defensively, Grayson Levine led the team in tackles in the title game and returns for his senior season. Levine recorded 40 tackles as a junior and is being looked at by Big 10 schools Wisconsin and Michigan State. He has received offers from Pennsylvania and Western Illinios according to Rivals.

The landscape for the Eagles will change this season. They will move into a new conference with Edina, Minnetonka, Wayzata and Hopkins starting this fall. It will be a change for a program that has not lost a single regular season game since the 2005-2006 season when they fell 10-7 to Chaska. The change in conference has brought about another issue the team is being forced to deal with. How to fill an eight game regular season? The Eagles have been forced to travel to Canada to play two split squad games to fill their schedule.

“We could not find a team in the United States with that week open that would play us,” said Grant. “We searched the country. Some states do not allow play outside adjoining states and other teams did not want to play.”

Regardless the venue or conference, the Eagles will be a team to watch in 2010.