The Southeast Conference Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Spring Grove and Lyle/Austin Pacelli, your East and West champions from the 2021-22 season. What are the Lions and the Athletics (or Shamrocks, I have a hard time letting go of my past) looking like in 2022-23? How about the rest of the league? We get into that today!</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>: Spring Grove, Lyle/Austin Pacelli, Lanesboro</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The leaders. Spring Grove and Lyle/Austin Pacelli are pretty much a 1A and a 1B heading into this season as far as the best goes. The Athletics have more back, Spring Grove is the more athletic team and likely has one more top end guy. It's a safe bet that both teams find their way into the top ten this year. Lanesboro is the team to watch for and the Lions have them in the West. The Burros bring back four starters and many of their reserves, they can win this league as well if the chemistry is there to take the next step. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>:  Schaeffer Academy, Mabel-Canton, Southland, Leroy-Ostrander, Kingsland, Grand Meadow</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Southland was really good last year but they relied a lot on seniors last season so they are likely to take a step back from that 18-7 record. Grand Meadow also lost a lot of their rotation but they do have Jace Kraft returning, although Southland was much better a year ago. Schaeffer Academy is a complete up and comer. They have a sophomore who was a second team all league player as a frosh, and they also have a top freshmen in the state as well. Leroy-Ostrander has a few more players back than Southland and Grand Meadow back so they should have a leg up on the others trying to catch the Athletics. Kingsland has maybe the best player of the Grand Meadow, Southland, Leroy-Ostrander, and Kingsland group, and that is [player_tooltip player_id='1288658' first='Jayden' last='Brink'] (although Kraft may challenge that). Because of that they should be a step better. Mabel-Canton should be the most improved team in this group along with Schaeffer Academy because they have the most veterans returning with all league honors. That said Mabel-Canton did not put up a 36 minute fight against some of the teams in this group very often a year ago. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding:</strong> Houston, Glenville-Emmons</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Houston has more of their rotation back between these two 1-win teams from a season ago so they should have the better chance to take a step forward. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>22-23 Conference Predictions</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><em>East</em></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol><li>Spring Grove</li><li>Lanesboro</li><li>Schaeffer Academy</li><li>Mabel-Canton</li><li>Houston</li></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><em>West</em></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol><li>Lyle/Austin Pacelli</li><li>Leroy-Ostrander</li><li>Kingsland</li><li>Southland </li><li>Grand Meadow</li><li>Glenville-Emmons</li></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><em>Southeast Power Rankings</em></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol><li>Spring Grove</li><li>Lyle/Austin Pacelli</li><li>Lanesboro</li><li>Schaeffer Academy</li><li>Kingsland</li><li>Leroy-Ostrander</li><li>Southland </li><li>Grand Meadow</li><li>Mabel-Canton</li><li>Houston</li><li>Glenville-Emmons</li></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All Southeast Conference</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='962256' first='Buay' last='Koak'] of Lyle/Austin Pacelli (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1226400' first='Tysen' last='Grinde'] of Spring Grove (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1284133' first='Elijah' last='Solum'] of Spring Grove (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1411291' first='Jake' last='Truckenmiller'] of Lyle/Austin Pacelli (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Josh Prestemon of Lanesboro (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1452981' first='Ethan' last='Van Schepen'] of Schaeffer Academy (soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Second Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mac Nelson of Lyle/Austin Pacelli (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1200449' first='Mason' last='Howard'] of Lanesboro (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Cayden Tollesfsrud of Mabel-Canton (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jace Kraft of Grand Meadow (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1288658' first='Jayden' last='Brink'] of Kingsland (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Stephen Schultz of Lanesboro (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Third Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Trey Anderson of Lyle/Austin Pacelli (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jordan Larson of Mabel-Canton (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1560744' first='Evan' last='Miller'] of Schaeffer Academy (fr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jacob Olerud of Spring Grove (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Parker Storhoff of Spring Grove (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Layne Bird of Leroy-Ostrander (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->