17U Run-Through: Minnesota Crossfire
The Minnesota Crossfire Belle squad went 34-7 a year ago and is ready to ride that momentum into their 17u season. They were a top 6-7 16u level team a year ago, and now the 17u year is upcoming.
The Roster. This an 11-man roster that is made up of north metro players and St. Cloud area talent. The roster had eight guys last year and seven of those players are back, plus Crossfire Belle added four new players to push this roster to 11.
Returning Guards. Shawn Sellner and Carson Sawatzke of Monticello played together on this team last year, and they have been playing together for the Magic for much of their lives. Sellner is a 5-foot-11 guard where as Carson is an inch bigger and can brag about being six-feet! Sellner and Sawatzke were both 40 percent shooters at the arc, they were both 74 percent foul shooters this year, and both shot a quality percentage overall. They didn’t get many shots though (they played with Matt Todd) so they scored 4-5 a game.
Also back for the Crossfire backcourt are Matthew Brodeur, a 6-foot-2 guard from Andover, and 6-foot-1 guard Jordan Schiffler from Albany. Brodeur gave Andover four points, two rebounds, and two assists a contest for a .500 team. Schiffler was Albany’s third leading scorer at eight points a game with 3.3 rebounds, and a team high 5.6 assists and a 2.1 steals. Jordan even led his team in blocks.
Returning Forwards. The Melrose pair of Preston Keaveny (6-foot) and Reegan Nelson (6-foot-3) return as well as Cole Elrod (6-foot-4) of Spectrum are back and ready to show what they can do as scorers. Cole scored 16 points per game for the Sting who was a ,500 team and is heading into the area of being a 20 point per game guy.
Melrose went 26-3 this year and was a top ten team all season. Keaveny and Nelson led the Dutchmen in scoring with Preston scoring 16 a night and Nelson giving his team 15 a contest. These are players that led Melrose to a great year and will now lead the Crossfire as well.
Newcomers. Let’s start with Owen Boerema, the 6-foot-4 athletic, skilled wing from Litchfield. Owen is one of the more interesting talents that we are excited to see this 17u season as the young man has a lot of talent. Owen led his team in the five main statistical categories this year with 17.5 points and 6.2 rebounds a game.
Orono forward Blake O’Connor is the top Spartan coming back from this year’s excellent season. Blake have his team 5.5 points per game and will be one of the main guys next year. Blake is 6-foot-3 as a forward and another new Crossfire player is 6-foot-4 Jason Kaul of Blaine. Kaul was Blaine’s second leading scorer this year at ten points a contest.
The Crossfire has a center this year as they added 6-foot-8 Zach Gazda from North Branch. Zach was North Branch’s second leading scorer at 12.4 a game this year and at his size people will be curious as to what he can do at this level.