The MN High School Preview: Top 10 Impact Coaching Hires

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>What coaching hires will play the biggest impact on the Minnesota high school basketball season? We will look at ten of them now!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(1) <strong>Todd Anderson </strong>to DeLaSalle. Anderson has been the long, long time assistant for the Islanders and has long been considered one of the elite assistants in the state of Minnesota. This team has more returning experience than anybody knows and Anderson will know how to get the best out of [player_tooltip player_id='962218' first='Nasir' last='Whitlock'], [player_tooltip player_id='1337821' first='Israel' last='Moses'] V, [player_tooltip player_id='1288764' first='Pj' last='Pounds'], and more. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(2) <strong>Joe Burger </strong>to Holy Family. He returns! Burger was at Minnetonka as the interim coach to Joe Hedstrom years ago and then he got his first head job at Holy Family. Burger did well there, went to Edina, and is now back with the Fire. And he has a top lead guard, the best frontcourt in the state, and solid role players returning. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(3) <strong>Ricky Davis</strong> to Minneapolis North. With Coach Larry McKenzie leaving the Polars bring in former NBA player Ricky Davis to coach. The North program ranks with the elite programs and everything that goes on there is covering strongly by the Star Tribune. It's in the spotlight and there is still talent there. North has a good junior class and Max Wilson is the headline transfer. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(4) <strong>Jamaal Gibson</strong> to Austin. Jamaal was the assistant at Austin but his hiring was huge because Gibson puts in the time and he has been molded by Kris Fadness in a job that was rare to it's system. The players will play for Gibson and [player_tooltip player_id='1288822' first='Ater' last='Manyuon'] could have a big season. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(5) <strong>Jon Bryant</strong> to Edina. Between graduation, transfers, and the new head coach, Edina is really starting fresh. They do have a really nice sophomore to build around in [player_tooltip player_id='1574213' first='Daniel' last='Molhoek'], a quality transfer in [player_tooltip player_id='1284163' first='Josiah' last='Coleman'], and some veterans like [player_tooltip player_id='1296152' first='Waylon' last='Erlandson'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1220364' first='Peyton' last='Himley'] read for their turn. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(6) <strong>Harry Sonie </strong>to Breck. Breck gets Sonie away from Augsburg where he was an assistant. Sonie has good returning talent to work with, landed some solid young transfers and Harry of course has some great experience having coached with Team Tyus. Breck has the talent to be a top 20 Class AA team and maybe top ten if things fit right. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(7) <strong>Jason Allen </strong>to Sauk Rapids-Rice. Allen moves over from Apollo to Sauk Rapids-Rice and takes over a program with good young talent, quality resources, and growing class sizes that will give the team deeper and deeper teams as they move forward. [player_tooltip player_id='1579918' first='Hudson' last='Omoke'] is a nice player to build around. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(8) <strong>Erik Leafblad</strong> to Burnsville. The Blaze have become a threat. They have one of the state's best players in [player_tooltip player_id='962223' first='Khalif' last='Bettis'] and one of the best transfers in the state [player_tooltip player_id='1226375' first='JT' last='Thornton'] running the wing with him. [player_tooltip player_id='1293941' first='Henry' last='Buchanan'] is seven foot size in the middle, [player_tooltip player_id='962309' first='Henry' last='Saykeo'] is coming off a good year, and role players Jeremy Sherlock and Raymond Belton are back as well. They could really surprise. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(9) <strong>Tyler Vaughn</strong> to Sibley East. The former Braham standout, the former Minnesota State-Moorhead standout, the former college coach most recently at Sioux Falls, Tyler Vaughn has taken over the job at Sibley East. A basketball die hard moving into the high school coach space. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(10) <strong>Cornell Pillow</strong> to Twin Cities Academy. Another basketball die hard, Cornell has been involved with high school basketball and AAU basketball in Minnesota for some time and he will bring a work ethic and years of experience to a program that needs to take steps now that the McNeal twins have graduated. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->