The Central Lakes Preview

<p>Year to year the Central Lakes Conference always surprises. Willmar and Sartell were the last two winners and both were surprises in terms of pre-season predictions. Here is this year’s preview.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <p>Top Ten in State: St. Cloud Apollo</p> <p>St Cloud Apollo will start the year just outside the top ten or in the top ten. Why? For one they are talented bringing back most of the line-up from a team that finished tied for first in the league (11-5 record). They also have the perfect combo of a good point guard, toughness, wing scoring, and size. In fact they could have multiple talented bigs pending on who is on the roster. Then you have their performances all summer long playing well against big school Summer Showcase events.</p> <p>Potential Top Ten: Alexandria</p> <p>Treyton Thompson leaves and the Cards are still a top ten potential team? Maybe. They would be back end top 20 to start the year if there was a top 20. Alexandria won’t be overly big but they are very talented at guard and wing with Jones, Hoskins, and Roderick.</p> <p>Compete with Most: Brainerd, Fergus Falls, Sartell-St. Stephen, St. Cloud Tech</p> <p>Why is this league so balanced? You have Brainerd and Fergus Falls who are both top three teams in their respected sections (AAAA and AA) plus last year’s surprise (Sartell) and a Tech team that will be tough to predict. Brainerd could go to state in 8AAAA with the right chemistry and Fergus Falls could be this year’s surprise.</p> <p>Rebuilding: Rocori, Willmar</p> <p>Willmar is tough to predict because all they really played a year ago was seniors. Regardless of if they have talent coming up or not they are rebuilding as it’s almost an entirely new team. Rocori was last a year ago and many seniors graduated.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>19-20 Conference Predictions</strong></p> <ol> <li>Cloud Apollo</li> <li>Brainerd</li> <li>Alexandria</li> <li>Fergus Falls</li> <li>Sartell-St. Stephen</li> <li>Sauk Rapids-Rice</li> <li>Cloud Tech</li> <li>Willmar</li> <li>Rocori</li> </ol> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Preseason All Central Lakes Conference</strong></p> <p><strong><u>First Team</u></strong></p> <p>Odier Olange of Fergus Falls (Sr)</p> <p>Michael Gravelle of St. Cloud Apollo (Sr)</p> <p>Owen Davis of Brainerd (Sr)</p> <p>Puoch Doboul of St. Cloud Apollo (Sr).</p> <p>Joshua Scholoe of Sauk Rapids-Rice (Sr)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Second Team</u></strong></p> <p>Colton Roderick of Alexandria (Jr)</p> <p>Dominic Aguilar of Fergus Falls (Jr)</p> <p>Kris Hoskins of Alexandria (Soph)</p> <p>Ben Staehling of Brainerd (Sr)</p> <p>Kobe Lee of Sauk Rapids-Rice (Sr)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><u><strong>Third Team</strong></u></p> <p>Matt Sieben of Sartell-St. Stephen (Sr)</p> <p>Kedrik Osourah of St. Cloud Tech (Sr)</p> <p>Ethan Olson of Fergus Falls (Sr)</p> <p>Carrson Jones of Alexandria (Sr)</p> <p>Chance Fazio of Fergus Falls (Sr).</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Fourth Team</u></strong></p> <p>Chang Hoth of St. Cloud Apollo (Sr)</p> <p>Logan Johnson of St. Cloud Apollo (Sr)</p> <p>Connor Powers of Brainerd (Sr)</p> <p>Jayden Philippi of Rocori (Jr)</p> <p>Jacob Bjelland of Sartell-St. Stephen (Sr)</p>