The Little Eight Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Last year Border West held off Battle Lake and Hillcrest Lutheran Academy to win the league championship. How do things shape up? We give you our rundown.</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>  Hillcrest Lutheran Academy, Battle Lake</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>With three starters back including [player_tooltip player_id='1978198' first='Jack' last='Mekalson'] and some young up and comers Battle Lake will be a top 20-25 team in Class A starting the season. Hillcrest Lutheran Academy is the team that I think is the most dangerous with a ton of talent back especially with the top returning player in the league back in the league in [player_tooltip player_id='2093698' first='Noah' last='Brumfield']. Brumfield is far better than I think many knew about it and could be one of the biggest Class A statewide surprises. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>: Hancock, Underwood, Parkers Prairie, Ashby</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hancock was a .500 team last year but they bring back several key pieces so they should take a nice jump forward. Underwood lost their top player and will be young, but a good young group. Ashby should be better with their top players back while Parkers Prairie is likely to be similar. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding</strong>: Border West, Brandon-Evansville, Rothsay</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Border West was 26-4 last season and they went to state in a memorable run. They were the team that came from nowhere to surprise the state. So what about this year? The loss of all four of their all league players will sting as well the seniors that were reserves. They do have a good junior class coming up though. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>23-24 Little Eight Conference Predictions</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Hillcrest Lutheran Academy</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Battle Lake</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Hancock</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Underwood</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Border West</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Ashby</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Parkers Prairie </li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Brandon-Evansville</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Rothsay</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All Little Eight Conference</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1978198' first='Jack' last='Mekalson'] of Battle Lake (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2093698' first='Noah' last='Brumfield'] of Hillcrest Lutheran Academy (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Luke Christensen of Hillcrest Lutheran Academy (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hudson VerSteeg of Hancock (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Holden Rinke of Border West (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2515219' first='Bradyn' last='Roisum'] of Battle Lake (soph)</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='2104467' first='Chase' last='Evink'] of Hancock (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2121347' first='Drew' last='Evavold'] of Underwood (soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Dylan Debilzen of Parkers Prairie (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jake Norby of Ashby (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2449409' first='Micah' last='Fuller'] of Brandon-Evansville (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2449413' first='Kyle' last='Kremer'] of Hancock (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->