The Iron Range Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We move to the Iron Range, now a six team league (I believe) that was won by Deer River a season ago. Rock Ridge enters the fray in the Iron Range. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Remember, Virginia and Eveleth-Gilbert combined to become Rock Ridge while Hibbing and Grand Rapids left a few years back to head to the Lake Superior Conference. Ely is in the Iron Range only for running events, baseball, and swimming meaning I believe they are still an Independent. There is also North Shore High School but they only play hockey and swim according to the league announcement. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Ten in State Potential</strong>: Deer River, Rock Ridge</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Deer River has three starters back plus players from their bench back from a 23 win team. They won't be top ten to start the season but they are a top 15 squad that could quickly enter the top ten if they take care of business early. Another team that could certainly be top ten is Rock Ridge. Their roster has four returning all league players back (two each from Virginia and EG) and double figure players that were in the rotation from the two schools last season. When you have that much experience you just need the chemistry to form. And if it forms Rock Ridge could be very good (but remember, EG and Virginia were a combined 20-34 last year). ***Edit. We have since been told that Grand Hansen transferred from Greenway to Rock Ridge meaning Rock Ridge becomes the favorite here with an incredible amount of experience (although new to one another in many ways)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>: Chisholm</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Chisholm was 19-6 last season and we thought they were going to have four starters back but all conference talent [player_tooltip player_id='1579910' first='Noah' last='Sundquist'] transferred to Cherry. Chisholm will still be good but not what they could have been. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding:</strong> Mesabi East, Greenway,International Falls</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mesabi East has one of the best sophomores in the league in [player_tooltip player_id='2446759' first='Hayden' last='Sampson'] but they only won two league games last season. International Falls is expected to be one of the worst teams in Class A next year as they gave up damn near 80 points a contest last season and lost their best player. Greenway not only graduated several starters, they lost the best player in the league to Rock Ridge. So this is a rebuild. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>22-23 Conference Predictions</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol><li>Rock Ridge</li><li>Deer River</li><li>Chisholm</li><li>Mesabi East</li><li>Greenway</li><li>International Falls</li></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All Iron Range Conference</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='962252' first='Grant' last='Hansen'] of Rock Ridge (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1288753' first='Ethan' last='Williams'] of Deer River (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='962318' first='Sam' last='Rahier'] of Deer River (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>AJ Roen of Rock Ridge (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='962260' first='Carter' last='Mavec'] of Rock Ridge (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Second Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1582113' first='Cale' last='Jackson'] of Deer River (soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>July Abernathy of Chisholm (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Sean Fleming of Chisholm (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1388089' first='Zane' last='Lokken'] of Rock Ridge (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jalen Miskowitz of Rock Ridge (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2446759' first='Hayden' last='Sampson'] of Mesabi East (soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->