The Tomahawk Preview

The Tomahawk Conference was won by Minnesota Valley Lutheran last year with Springfield and SESM on their tail. Will it be similar this year? We have a look tonight!   Conference Commentary   Top Ten in State: Minnesota Valley Lutheran, Sleepy Eye-St. Mary's   MVL lost a few key players but they return all league talent, they added a big time transfer for Class AA, and they are one of the bigger teams in Class AA at all spots. They have a chance to make a league, section and state run this year. You don't see many out of state Class AA teams starting 6'2, 6'3, 6'3, 6'5 and 6'6 with a 6'5 man as the first player of the bench. And all of them are seniors.   SESM brings almost as much back as MVL but their loss of Kaleb Wait makes things slightly more uncertain than last year's champs. SESM has four starters returning and five of their seven man rotation back overall. Twenty plus per game scorer [player_tooltip player_id='1284232' first='Will' last='Walter'] is the go to man and he's got a chance to have an amazing senior year. SESM is not as big as MVL but they have good size and are of course a Class A team.   Top Ten in State Potential: Springfield   Springfield was 11-5 in the league but 2-9 outside of it. They were a young team that took some lumps but have seven of their top eight back and are ready for a run. Brayden Sturm is a really good junior for the Tigers.   Compete with Most: Cedar Mountain, Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart, Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop, New Ulm Cathedral   Know this, Cedar Mountain beat Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart twice, Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop beat Cedar Mountain twice, and Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart beat Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop twice. With that, and knowing these teams bring back a combined 11 of 15 starters, I think it's Cedar Mountain that lost just a titch more than the others and GFW that brings back just a bit more. That said, Cedar Mountain was 8-8 in league play, Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart was 7-9 and GFW was 6-10. So yeah, ordering them for this year, not easy.   And I don't know quite what to expect from Cedar Mountain. They had a great March run but they needed that just to get four games under .500. They were 8-8 in league play and lost two key starters. That said they have a pair of all league players back. With their best player in Chase Hubin back Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart should be better but how much better is the question. Three starters return but they do lose Connor McColley. Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop has their top six players back from a 12-14 team so they should take a nice step forward with Dominic Rose leading the way.   You can throw New Ulm Cathedral into the confusion as well. They won only five league games but have the best player out of this group of four teams in [player_tooltip player_id='1284158' first='Jevan' last='Wilfahrt']. They could finish between fourth and seventh just like the others could. The Hounds actually finished with the best overall record of these four squads last season. They finished last year winning six of their last seven including a win over GFW.   Rebuilding: Sleepy Eye, Wabasso   Sleepy Eye looks like they are still going to be pretty young. With only one junior and one sophomore there is not much to bridge the gap between seniors and freshmen but [player_tooltip player_id='2447234' first='Landon' last='Wendinger'] is a good junior. Wabasso graduated one of the bigger senior groups in this league (it was a small senior group for most by the way) so that likely means another year of working to the future.     23-24 Tomahawk Conference Predictions   (1) Minnesota Valley Lutheran   (2) Sleepy Eye-St. Mary's   (3) Springfield   (4) New Ulm Cathedral   (5) Cedar Mountain   (6) Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart   (7) Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop   (8) Sleepy Eye   (9) Wabasso     Preseason All Tomahawk Conference   First Team   [player_tooltip player_id='2026185' first='Benjamin' last='Pearson'] of Minnesota Valley Lutheran (sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='1284232' first='Will' last='Walter'] of Sleepy Eye-St. Mary's (sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='1284234' first='Zander' last='Jacobson'] of Minnesota Valley Lutheran (sr)   Brayden Sturm of Springfield (jr)   [player_tooltip player_id='1284158' first='Jevan' last='Wilfahrt'] of New Ulm Cathedral (sr)     Second Team   Chase Hubin of Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart (sr)   Dominic Rose of Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop (sr)   Jonathan Peterman of Sleepy Eye-St. Mary's (sr)   Branndon Pendleton of Cedar Mountain (sr)   Kyler Fluker of Minnesota Valley Lutheran (sr)     Third Team   Noah Vogel of Springfield (sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2447226' first='Jake' last='Finstad'] of New Ulm Cathedral (jr)   Aaron Black of Minnesota Valley Lutheran (sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2447210' first='Blake' last='Schueller'] of Cedar Mountain (jr)   Benjamin Potter of Springfield (sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2447234' first='Landon' last='Wendinger'] of Sleepy Eye (jr)     Fourth Team   George Schwint of Sleepy Eye-St. Mary's (jr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2399032' first='Bryan' last='Buerkle'] of Springfield (soph)   Mark Anderson of Sleepy Eye-St. Mary's (sr)   William Kaesermann of Minnesota Valley Lutheran (sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2119602' first='Cole' last='Jacobson'] of GFW (soph)   Isaac Miller of New Ulm Cathedral (sr)

The Tomahawk Conference was won by Minnesota Valley Lutheran last year with Springfield and SESM on their tail. Will it be similar this year? We have a look tonight!