A correction has been made to the online story. In the print version of the story, it was reported joining a conference to the south wouldn't work because North Branch is too big; it should have said the north.

By Steve Morris

631-102 -- that's the amount the North Branch football team has been outscored since they left the Rum River Conference and joined the North Suburban Conference two seasons ago.

As may be expected, the community doesn't like it when their football team is outscored by such a large margin. Inevitably, people second guess why North Branch joined NSC and other issues regarding the football program.

North Branch Activities Director Becky Leuer addressed various issues surrounding the Vikings entrance in the NSC in a letter mailed last week to the parents of football players in North Branch,

The letter was mailed to more than 200 parents and was an attempt to open the line of communication and to seek volunteers for a Football Advisory Committee. So far, Leuer said she has gotten positive feedback from the letter.

Concerning the NSC, Leuer said the school has no where to go.

The school can't go east because that would put them in Wisconsin and heading north wouldn't work because North Branch is too large of a school.

"The Mississippi 8 has no interest in us," she said.

The only other option would be the Suburban East but those schools are too big, Leuer said.

Going independent isn't a viable option, Leuer explained, because North Branch would have a difficult time finding teams to play.

The Spring Lake Park Panthers are in an independent conference and traveled to southern California to play because it was the closest non-conference game they could find.

Among the 11 teams in the NSC, the Vikings fall in the middle in size of students in grades 9-12.

"The NSC is a good fit for us enrollment wise," Leuer said.

A PLACE TO START

In effort to fix the broken football program, Leuer is in the midst of forming a Football Advisory Committee to examine ways to improve the program.

An advisory committee is nothing new to the North Branch school district. The hockey team has set up a similar committee and is working on the same issues.

The North Branch Football Advisory Committee meetings are scheduled to begin in November.

Leuer said she has gotten some people who have shown interest in being part of committee.

WHAT HAPPENED THIS YEAR

North Branch has had a sub-par season for several reasons. Some of their top players had season-ending injuries and some of the school's better athletes opted to not play football.

"It takes all your good athletes to build a football program," Leuer said.

Coupled with being in one of the better conferences in the metro area and North Branch was fighting an uphill battle from the beginning.

"The North Suburban Conference is a very competitive conference and we have to step up and rise to the occasion," Leuer said.

Next season, the boys may not have as difficult a schedule as they don't play Totino-Grace or Spring Lake Park. On Sept. 28, the boys lost to Spring Lake Park 67-0 and last week the boys fell to the Eagles 48-0.

Instead, they will face off against Princeton and Robbinsdale-Cooper.

HOW TO GET A SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM

Successful football programs, Leuer said, have a lot of community involvement.

Teams such as Totino-Grace hold practice on Saturdays while North Branch does not. Leuer said they have received resistance to Saturday practices because it runs into family time.

A second factor which contributes to a football program's success is coaching stability and consistency. In the last eight years, North Branch has gone through three different head coaches.

"It takes time to build a program," she said. "It takes around five years to turn it around into a solid football program.

Dave Eyre is in his second year as head coach and has an overall record of 2-13. Coach Eyre said, "There have been some questions over our competitiveness in this conference. The history of which was done long before I came here. I will just say that this team has dedicated professionls who work their hardest to get us on the winning track, it will just take time."

Leuer said this season's football coaching staff is just as frustrated as anyone else about this season. "To be successful, there has to be a culture change," she said.

See this week's print edition of the Post Review to read the letter sent to parents by North Branch Area Schools Activities Director Becky Leuer.