<p>The Warroad program continues to steadily improve year after year. With the league MVP returning and the defense tough as nails, the Warriors are the favorites once again. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p>
<p><strong>Top Ten</strong>: Warroad</p>
<p>The Warriors are in Class AA which is a pretty tough class this year so Warroad will start the season just outside the top ten (13 actually) but we can see them breaking into the top ten early. With three all league players returning including the league MVP, and several veterans from a defense that allowed only 44 points a game, Warroad has high expectations once again. </p>
<p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>: East Grand Forks, Thief River Falls</p>
<p>EGF went 8-12 last year and lost two of their three all league players. Add in a lack of size and we are wondering how much better they will be. There are experienced seniors and one of the leagues best players in Tanner Campos, but we don’t think it will be enough to challenge Warroad. The East Grand Forks/Thief River Falls games were very good last season with EGF taking two of three. That said, the Prowlers are a big bigger and have four starters returning so we think this year they will have the edge. </p>
<p><strong>Rebuilding</strong>: Roseau, Crookston</p>
<p>The Rams won have their league games a season ago and went .500 in conference play, but they lost a giant share of their production. In fact they lost 75 percent of their scoring for example. They will compete but a lot of new pieces have to step up. Crookston should be a bit better but for them to take a step to fourth they have to defend better. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>21-22 Conference Predictions</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>Warroad</li>
<li>Thief River Falls</li>
<li>East Grand Forks</li>
<li>Roseau</li>
<li>Crookston</li>
</ol>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Preseason All Northwest Conference</strong></p>
<p><strong><u>First Team</u></strong></p>
<p>[player_tooltip player_id="958794" first="Dylan" last="Fox"] of Warroad (sr)</p>
<p>Tanner Campos of East Grand Forks (sr)</p>
<p>Evan Grove of Warroad (sr)</p>
<p>[player_tooltip player_id="962280" first="Jack" last="Manning"] of Thief River Falls (jr)</p>
<p>Cole Spenst of Warroad (sr)</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong><u>Second Team</u></strong></p>
<p>[player_tooltip player_id="958835" first="Jack" last="Garmen"] of Crookston (sr)</p>
<p>Jack Onkka of Thief River Falls (sr)</p>
<p>Steele Walsh of Roseau (sr)</p>
<p>Carter Vasek of East Grand Forks (sr)</p>
<p>Wyatt Aronson of Roseau (sr)</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong><u>Third Team</u></strong></p>
<p>Jacob Hesby of Crookston (sr)</p>
<p>Brady Olson of Thief River Falls (sr)</p>
<p>Kyle Kvarnlov of Warroad (sr)</p>
<p>John Davis of Warroad (sr)</p>
<p>Jack Rosendahl of Thief River Falls (sr)</p>
<p> </p>
