Northstar Hoops Way-Too-Early Class A Season Preview
Summer is, for all intents and purposes, over. With fall sports starting up this week and schools starting up in the next week or two, we bid adieu to sunshine and brace for the cold winter months ahead.
With school on the mind, let’s turn briefly to the upcoming school ball season.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what hoops in Class A will look like this upcoming year
Big Points
Wide Open Spaces
With Minneapolis North moving up to Class AA last season, the feeling was that the field was as open as it’s been in some time. That sentiment should remain as there is no clear-cut favorite — though many of the contenders will be familiar — heading into the season.
North Woods has played in the last two state title games and returns arguably its two best players in Cade Goggleye and Trevor Morrison. Goggleye’s put up video-game numbers for a while now and Morrison emerged as a inside force for the Grizzlies last year as a Sophomore.
Russell-Tyler-Ruthton won 33 games last season and captured the state title thanks to balance on offense and stifling defense. Several key guys are gone but Carter and Cooper Hansen are both back. That’s a great start. Tucker Baune and Brett Kelly were bench guys last year and should take on bigger roles as well.
Springfield might’ve been the best team in the state but lost to Mayer Lutheran in its section title bout — Mayer Lutheran would finish third at state — and the Tigers return three of their four best players. Isaac Fink might be the best player in Class A and he’s well-publicized. Decker Scheffler and Mitchell Buerkle both averaged double figures a season ago too.
Teams to Watch
Assume North Woods, Springfield and RTR are top-threeish teams. There are a handful of others that didn’t make the state tournament (not including Springfield) that, on paper, should be poised to make strong runs at it come spring.
BOLD lost to Mayer Lutheran in the subsection final game and returns its top three scorers — namely Gavin Vosika and Carter Henry. Section 2A was loaded a year ago and it’ll be similarly imposing this year. Mayer Lutheran will take a step back given it loses several key seniors. But Baden Noennig is one of the best players in the state, so the Crusaders will be far from a pushover.
Spring Grove lost in a route to Rushford-Peterson in the section final and while the Trojans will never be bad, the Lions best chance to finally get over that hump may be this season. Ethan Matzke and Alex Folz are solid seniors with a ton of varsity experience, and Noah Elton and Caden Grinde should both take on bigger roles. Rushford-Peterson will be the favorite in that section as it returns Landon Skalet and Luke O’Hare. Kobe Lind is a name to watch for as well.
If a team is going to knock off RTR, Minneota might be the one to do it. The Vikings, always a strong wrestling school, have a loaded returning lineup off 24 wins and a narrow loss to RTR in the section final. Thomas Hennen, Jacob Hennen and Logan Sussner give Minneota a potent three-headed scoring attack.
Up north, Ada-Borup seems poised for another strong season off a loss to Cass Lake-Bena in the section final. The Panthers return several key players but lose arguably their two best in Arnold Kingbird and Noah DeLaPaz while the Cougars run it back with returning starts like Mason Miller, Jared Brainard and Tommy Stewart.
Nevis is another northern club to keep an eye on as Michael Landquist and Derek Lindow are back after strong seasons a year ago.
In the metro area, Christ’s Household of Faith has a chance to be strong again. The Lions return McCaleb Alleman — the second leading scorer — and several starters.
Way-to-Early Preseason Top-10
This is subject to change of course as the season is still months away and with fall leagues still ahead, things can look vastly different even before the season even starts. With that said, here’s my but-a-fetus Top-10:
- 1. Springfield
- 2. North Woods
- 3. Minneota
- 4. Russell-Tyler-Ruthton
- 5. BOLD
- 6. Ada-Borup
- 7. Rushford-Peterson
- 8. Spring Grove
- 9. Mayer Lutheran
- 10. Nevis