PHD 2019 Top 50: Inside the Rankings
This past week Prep Hoops Dakotas released an updated Top 50 ranking of 2019 athletes. This is the first version of the top ranked players in the class of 2019, and so we are going to dive in a take a deeper look.
Small Schools Rule: The first thing that jumps out is that all of the the top eight players are from either Class A or Class B. In fact, there are only five players from Class AA ranked in the top 30. The top two players are Noah Freidel from Tea High School and Sawyer Schultz from Bridgewater-Emery High School. Each of these athletes have already garnered the attention of multiple college coaches and have received college scholarship offers. Freidel (Class A) and Schultz (Class B) might each be in the running for player of the year in their respective classes as juniors this season.
Chance for Back-to-Back Championships: Two defending state champions each have two players in the top 10 in the class of2019.
Defending Class A champs, Tea High School, return a large group that helped them go on a late run to the state championship. Led by Freidel, Tea also has the #4 ranked player in Justin Hohn. Hohn is a very athletic guard that can score and be a very good perimeter defender. With those two Tea would be in a good position however, they still have 2019 ranked players Kade Sterns (#16) and Kaleb Joffer (#34). Plus don’t forget the seniors who are ranked in the class of 2018, Jake Friedrich (#62) and Chris Morales (#67).
The title of Class B defending champs belongs to Bridgewater-Emery. Led by Schultz, the Huskies also have 2019 #7 ranked Jamin Arend. Arend provides another scoring threat and defender on the perimeter to pair with Schultz. The Huskies were led by these two last year as sophomores to an undefeated record and a Class B State Championship. If these two stay healthy along with a group of other returners, look out opponents in Class B.
SD Attack Has Talent: This AAU team has had a solid group of players together for a few years now and as the individual players have grown and developed, it is quite an impressive roster. Five of the top nine players in the 2019 rankings are SD Attack players. Freidel, Schultz, Camden Bialas (#3), Mitchell Goodbary (#8), and Drew Cole (#9) make for quite a core group of players. Cole is the top ranked Class AA player and his SD Attack teammate, Luke Ronsiek, is the second highest ranked Class AA player checking in at #13. With the combination of talented players, size and athleticism there is no wonder why this group of young men have had a ton of success during the grassroots summer seasons.
Take a look at the rankings and create your own takeaways. It undoubtedly creates some excitement to watch these young men this season!