The MCAA Preview
The MCAA. The ten team metro league will play their final games this year as a new league is formed and others go their separate ways.
Last Year (17-18). 1) Maranatha Christian, 2) New Life, 3) Trinity, 4) St Croix Prep, 5) Spectrum, 6) Lester Prairie, 7) Heritage Christian, 8) PACT, 9) West Lutheran, 10) Legacy Christian
Conference Commentary
MCAA Title Contenders – Lester Prairie, Maranatha Christian, St. Croix Prep, Spectrum
Losing Beijan Newbern is tough but MCA brings back everything else from the team. Despite their best player moving on MCA is still going to be a top 15 team in Class AA this year with their athletes, deep returning roster, and the Daniels pair (Hakim and Clarence) leading the way.
Lester Prairie has their 4th coach in five seasons but outside of the new leader, everything else is the same. The Bulldogs were 12-16 a year ago but return their entire line-up plus one of the top couple players in the league in Michael Ziermann. This could be a 20 win team, and they certainly should flip last year’s record.
St. Croix Prep won 18 games last year and now they have two guys – assuming Jayton Metcalf is healthy and ready to play – that can score for this team plus a very nice group of young players. Metcalf and Daniel McCarrell give this team a pair of experienced producers that should have a great year.
The Sting of Spectrum is another quality contender. Matthew Kruse and Cole Elrod of Spectrum both scored 16 a game last season plus all of the role players are back as well from a .500 team.
Compete with Most – Heritage Christian, Trinity, West Lutheran
Heritage Christian lost a load of players but third leading scorer TJ Guggenberger does return for a team that made the state tournament even though they were 2-8 in MCAA play. Only one Trinity starter returning to the team but several from the bench and the program won seven of their ten league games last season. League play was tough for West Lutheran last year but it’s a 13 win team that has 2-3 starters ready to return.
Rebuilding – Legacy Christian, New Life Academy, PACT
Legacy was winless in the league last year and only five wins total but experienced players do return. New Life is a good program and they likely have well taught players that will compete, but most of their rotation is gone so a rebuild is there. PACT lost the majority of their line-up from an 8-win team.
MCAA Power Ranking
1 – Maranatha Christian
2 – St. Croix Prep
3 – Spectrum
4 – Lester Prairie
5 – Trinity
6 – New Life Academy
7 – Heritage Christian
8 – West Lutheran
9 – Legacy Christian
10 – PACT
Preseason All MCAA
First Team
Michael Ziermann of Lester Prairie (12)
Hakim Daniels of Maranatha Christian (11)
Clarence Daniels of Maranatha Christian (12)
Cole Elrod of Spectrum (12)
Daniel McCarrell of St. Croix Prep (11)
Second Team
Jayton Metcalf of St. Croix Prep (12)
Matthew Kruse of Spectrum (12)
TJ Guggenberger of Heritage Christian (11)
Justin Mason of Maranatha Christian (12)
Ben Maslow of Trinity (12)
Third Team
Max Lawrence of Spectrum (11)
Evan Lee of Lester Prairie (10)
Maciah Harut of Maranatha Christian (12)
Brett Volrath of West Lutheran (12)
Parker Bayerl of Lester Prairie (12)
Fourth Team
Josh Hinrichs of Legacy Christian (12).
Parker Maahs of PACT (12)
Jordan Stone of PACT (10)
Michael Reader of New Life Academy (11).
Troy Kokkinen of West Lutheran (11)