17u Run Through: South Dakota Attack
The South Dakota Attack has the top prospects in South Dakota’s 2019 class (as well as some top players from NW Iowa) and this year the Attack will play an eight weekend schedule challenging themselves against the best of the Midwest.
The Roster: The Attack roster is ten strong and they have three more weeks to get ready for their first event of the year which is during the open period in Omaha. Eight of the players on the Attack roster are from South Dakota while two are from Iowa. What makes this team special is that the vast majority of the roster has been together for the last couple seasons.
Returning from South Dakota: The Attack is talented in prospects as they are quality on the floor as a working unit. This is a group of respected and tough players that play the game the right way, plus at least half of the top ten prospects in the state are on this team (including the top three player prospects in the class). Noah Friedel of Tea Area scored 27.4 points per game this year leading his team to a third place finish in state. Noah scored on 48 percent of his field goals and was a 38-39 percent shooter at the arc and this is while being injured.
Also back for the Attack is Mitch Goodbary of Sioux Falls Christian, the active and agile muscle that scored 13 points a game with seven boards a night for a team that lost only one game all season. Godobary was a PHD All State player as was Sawyer Schultz of Bridgewater-Emery. Sawyer also played for a third place in state finisher and was an all state player. Sawyer scored 23.5 points per game with five assists a night plus seven rebounds a game. Sawyer was offered early by Augustana and likely has several others that will follow him close.
With a regular double figure outage combined with common double-doubles and several blocks, Camden Bialas showed at Parker why he is a top prospect in the state all junior season long. Drew Cole of Brookings, a 6-foot-6 forward, led the Bobcats in scoring at 13.4 points per game and rebounding with six a night. He is a top ten level prospect in the South Dakota junior class as is Goodbary. Then you have guard Luke Ronsiek of SF Christian who gave a top team in the state guard depth and 6-foot-5 Tucker West who led SF Roosevelt in scoring a fair number of times having a solid junior year.
Returning from Iowa: The Attack’s Iowa talent is coming off great junior seasons and are ready to push into the Iowa top 100 when the Prep Hoops Iowa crew resorts their prospect rankings. Cade Bleeker led Sioux Center with 15.3 points per game this year shooting 54 percent from the floor, 41 percent at the arc, and 71 percent at the foul line. Impressive numbers plus 4.7 rebounds a contest, two assists a game, and 33 steals for the year for the 6-foot-3 Sioux Center prospect.
Six-foot-4 Lucas Nagel had a huge season himself. He helped his team to the state tournament as a junior, was third team all conference, third team all Northwest Iowa, and made the All Area Team (out of Worthington, Minnesota). Nagel led a balanced team in scoring with 12.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 4.3 assists a game. Nagel shot 47.3 percent from the field and 71 percent from the foul line.
New Additions: Six-foot-3 Gavin Schipper of Sioux Falls Christian is the lone new addition to this team and everyone knows what this prospect brings, a shooting touch from the perimeter. One of the best shooters from distance in the state actually. Schipper is one of five games in the SF Christian starting line-up that averaged double figures as Gavin gave the balanced team 11.7 points per game.
Where Will They Be?: The Attack starts with open period events on the weekend of April 20th when they going to Omaha for a Midwest Live tournament. A week later they are in Minneapolis for the well respected NY2LA Spring Extravaganza. Then the Attack will be a part of the Battle at the Lakes in Minnesota ,a May 11th tournament that continues to grow as one of the better spring events in the Midwest.
After taking the rest of the spring off to finish school, the Attack will be at an Elite game the third weekend of June followed by a the Great Plains Alliance, a tournament that is known as the Northern Sun Conference prospect camp (not really a prospect camp but 14 of the 16 teams in the league attend every year). The Attack won this event last season. Then in July the Attack will first stay local for the Summer Slam in Sioux Falls before heading on the road to Wichita for the Mullens High Profile event and then ending in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Classic.