The Central Lakes Preview

<p>Year to year the Central Lakes Conference always gives you something new.  Last year Alexandria won the league.  Here is this year’s preview.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <p><strong>Top Ten in State: </strong>Alexandria</p> <p>The Cards made the state title game last year and return three of their top four scorers from a season ago.  Not only do they return talent, Alex has some really good players coming up through the program as well.  A top ten team in Class AAA for sure. </p> <p><strong>Top Ten in State Potential: </strong>Fergus Falls</p> <p>The Otters lose some headlining names but a couple starters return as does the bench.  The Otters will be a bit more balanced and still very good with a shot to make some noise in Class AA.</p> <p><strong>Compete with Most: </strong>Brainerd, Sartell, Sauk Rapids-Rice, St. Cloud Apollo</p> <p>Brainerd may have trouble matching a 3-loss season but they won’t fall as far people think. Sauk Rapids-Rice is interesting.  They leaned on [player_tooltip player_id="957611" first="Ethan" last="Opsahl"] heavily, and he’s gone.  But everybody else on the team returns so they should be able to be a couple games over .500 again. Sartell lost more than Brainerd and Sauk Rapids-Rice but they have [player_tooltip player_id="958683" first="Mason" last="Lund"] back who is likely the best player in the league.  Between Lund and [player_tooltip player_id="1144114" first="Evan" last="Templin"] the Sabres will have enough to keep winning. Apollo has the best big in the league (Diew) and a couple guards back, if they have the depth they can contend.</p> <p><strong>Rebuilding: </strong>St Cloud Tech, Rocori, Willmar</p> <p>The Spartans were a senior dominated team last season and went 8-12.  With so many new faces in the line-up this year it’s going to be a bit of a restart.  Willmar has a really nice junior group that should be competitive but there could be some rough nights at times, and solid nights other games.  Tech has another new coach and is going through another set of changes.  They do have their two top players back though so they should be better than a 4-win team. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>21-22 Conference Predictions</strong></p> <ol> <li>Alexandria</li> <li>Brainerd</li> <li>Sartell-St. Stephen</li> <li>Fergus Falls</li> <li>Sauk Rapids-Rice</li> <li>St. Cloud Apollo</li> <li>St. 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>Kris Hoskins of Alexandria (sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="958683" first="Mason" last="Lund"] of Sartell (sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="850732" first="Erik" last="Hedstrom"] of Alexandria (sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="958643" first="Thomas" last="Diew"] of St. Cloud Apollo (sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1144098" first="Mitchell" last="Degen"] of Brainerd (sr)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Second Team</u></strong></p> <p>Devin Yeager of St. Cloud Tech (sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1140533" first="Elijah" last="Moilanen"] of Sauk Rapids-Rice (sr)</p> <p>Myles Sansted of Alexandria (sr)</p> <p>Donte Horshaw of St. Cloud Tech (jr)</p> <p>Alex Schramm of Willmar (sr)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Third Team</u></strong></p> <p>Kaden Conklin of Fergus Falls (sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="962281" first="Blake" last="Schoolmeester"] of Willmar (sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1221114" first="John" last="Pecarich"] of Brainerd (jr)</p> <p>Elliott Pribbenow of Fergus Falls (jr)</p> <p>Alex Harren of Sauk Rapids-Rice (sr)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Fourth Team</u></strong></p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1144114" first="Evan" last="Templin"] of Sartell (sr)</p> <p>Carter Steffensmeier of Alexandria (sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1221113" first="Nick" last="Evanson"] of Brainerd (jr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1225625" first="Andrew" last="Harren"] of Sauk Rapids-Rice (jr)</p> <p>Luke Newman of Fergus Falls (sr)</p> <p>Jamari Abston of St. Cloud Apollo (sr)</p>