Devils Lake receives one vote, Langdon Area/Munich ranked third in first NDHSAA football polls

The start of the 2024-25 school year means that weekly NDHSAA polls are back.

In the first edition of the Division AA poll, Devils Lake football was not ranked in the top five but did receive one vote. Fargo South led the way with seven of the 19 first-place votes, while Jamestown, Grand Forks Central, Grand Forks Red River and Dickinson filled out the list.

West Fargo Horace and Bismarck St. Mary’s each received a first-place vote but were unranked. Devils Lake and Valley City were the other two teams to receive a vote.

Devils Lake is coming off of back-to-back 3-6 seasons. The last year the Firebirds had a winning record was 2017, when they went 7-4.

Over in Division A, Langdon Area/Munich came in third. Only 10 voters participated in this ranking, and seven of them gave their first-place vote to Kindred. Second-place Velva/Drake-Anamoose/Garrison received two first-place votes. LA/M actually didn’t receive any first-place votes, but came in third overall with 22 points. The remaining first-place nod went to Dickinson Trinity, which tied for fifth overall alongside Shiloh Christian.

The Cardinals won three consecutive state titles from 2018 to 2020, and appeared in four straight championship games going back to 2017, but they haven’t been back since. They’re coming off of an impressive 11-1 campaign last year. They haven’t had a losing season since 2015, when they went 1-7. LA/M’s worst record in that span was a 6-4 mark in 2022. Overall, the Cardinals are 84-10 over the last eight seasons.

The nine-man football rankings were a tight race, with North Prairie leading the pack with just three more points (27) than second-place LaMoure-Litchville/Marion and South Border (24).

The only team from the Lake Region to receive any votes in the nine-man poll was New Rockford-Sheyenne/Maddock. The Rockets are coming off of a 10-1 campaign, the second-best football season in their school’s history (their best being a 12-0 record in 2012).

The Four Winds/Minnewaukan Indians, who went 4-4 last season and are now without superstar Deng Deng, did not receive any votes.