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FOOTBALL
With the social gathering limit in place at 250 still, but high school football set to return on October 9 and 10 to Minnesota, plans are starting to come together on how tickets will allocated.

The current 250 person limit has been tested a few times at North Branch this soccer season as a some away teams have travelled well and students have turned out to support their classmates on the field. Chisago Lakes topped out at 188 for one of their soccer games, so they haven’t quite hit the limit.

But, football has always been the highest attended sport at both schools and there certainly has been questions on who was going to get tickets and how.

For North Branch, Activities Director Andrea Schmidt said that the district AD’s came together to agree that the home team at each stadium will be allowed 150 tickets and the away team will have 100 tickets. Chisago Lakes AD Jodi Otte said their district had the same plan.

“We will likely offer each player two tickets for family,” Schmidt said of North Branch’s tentative plan. She did emphasize that there will not be a public sale of tickets. “We’ll only have about 50 tickets left after players hand out all of theirs and will have to make some tough decisions,” she said.

Otte also said parents are taking top priority.

“Parents will be the only ones to receive a pre-sale link to purchase tickets. Those tickets will need to be shown at the gate and will be cross-referenced with the list provided by the athletes,” she said. The Wildcat athletes will be completing a weekly Google document with the names of the two adults they’re inviting. Otte did say that split families will be accommodated for.

In the case of an athlete who has parents/relatives that can’t attend a game for one reason or another, Otte said they will work with each athlete. “At this time, the tickets will be for adults only, but we will work with individuals as requested.”

Chisago Lakes will also be providing 32 tickets to the cheerleading squad, so Otte said there will not be any extra tickets for the general public or student body.

North Branch’s home schedule features the season opener against Cloquet on Friday, October 9, Proctor on Thursday, October 15 and Grand Rapids on Friday, October 30.

North Branch Area High School will be live-streaming all home games. Links to live-streams will be available at the football team schedule at nbskolvikings.com.

The Vikings’ district is comprised of all northern smaller schools, and with them traveling from far away and weather getting cold quickly with the late-season start, Schmidt was asked about the possibility of away team tickets not being used and potentially opening up for NB students. She said that’s something in the works. “I’m hoping I’ll be able to get the away team’s pass list early enough to be able to let more students in if the visiting team doesn’t use all 100 tickets,” she explained.

Chisago Lakes’ gets a little bit more leeway in their timeline. They start the season on the road before hosting Rocori on Saturday, October 10. Their other home games are against Cambridge-Isanti on Friday, October 30 and St. Cloud Apollo on Friday, November 6.

They play bigger schools who have a lot shorter commute than North Branch’s opponents, so Otte doesn’t anticipate any extra tickets will come available from the away teams. Most teams they face won’t even have the opportunity to get both parents tickets with only 100 available.

VOLLEYBALL
Volleyball is simple. No spectators will be allowed at either school. Schmidt said they are even limited to three table workers and no announcers to limit people within the space. Live streams will be available of volleyball matches

The ‘Cats opened with a Thursday, October 8 home date against Monticello.

North Branch will look to defend their Mississippi 8 Conference crown with a home opener against Becker on Thursday, October 8.

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