The West Central Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The West Central Conference is always a good race. Sauk Centre won the league last year but namesake West Central Area, Melrose, and Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta were all right there. We have a look at the 2023-24 West Central Conference now!</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</strong>: Sauk Centre, West Central Area</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The majority of the Sauk Centre line-up returns at least four starters that I can tell. Experienced, skilled and with a star, the one drawback for the Mainstreeters might be that they don't have a lot up front size wise. Big things are expected from [player_tooltip player_id='1284153' first='Jay' last='Neubert'] and his team as they look for another conference title and try and challenge Albany for the section title. West Central Area is top five in the state for Class A with all of their experience and talent back from an 18-win team. West Central Area is also a smaller team which will likely hurt them more in their league run that it will their section run (that said, they are in the loaded Section 6A). West Central Area has some of the Gopher hoops injury bug going on the last couple years but if they can stay healthy they might be the pick here. It will be interesting to see where [player_tooltip player_id='1464341' first='Camden' last='Anderson'] is after his year off to injury. If he's moving well and ready to roll this Knights will be right there with Sauk Centre. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Ten in State Potential</strong>: Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta, Melrose Area, BOLD</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Not only did this program not take a year off to rebuild after losing so much of their line-up, the Tigers won 20 games again! And they enter the 2023-24 season a top 15 team in Class AA with a chance to hit that top ten at some point. It looks like the Tigers have a couple all league guys back, three starters back total and five or six rotation players returning. Melrose Area is about top 30 for Class AA which means they just jump into this category. And they do so with two multi-year starters back and four of their top eight back overall. They have a chance to improve from 17 to 20 wins this season so they just sneak in here. BOLD was a very young team a season ago but a team that grew as the season went on earning 18 wins. In fact, early in the year they lost to Melrose but later in the year they turned it around to beat the Dutchmen. BOLD also as a star in [player_tooltip player_id='1587155' first='Jack' last='Gross']. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>: Montevideo</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Montevideo was 13-14 last season and lost just one guy from that team. They almost made the section title game in 3AA last year but a buzzer beater ended their year. [player_tooltip player_id='2104548' first='Gannon' last='Reidinger'] leads an experienced four man group that should be tough to beat all year. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding</strong>: Benson, Minnewaska Area</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Outside of their wins over Minnewaska Area, Benson was not competitive against the rest of the league and it was a rough stretch of games. They lose their best player to graduation as well. And while it may have been rough at Benson they did win six games overall, and two wins were over Minnewaska Area. Minnewaska Area was 1-25 a season ago with a lot of rough nights in league play. So who did they beat for that one win? Hope Academy by 22. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>23-24 West Central Conference Predictions</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Sauk Centre</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>West Central Area</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>BOLD</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Melrose Area</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Montevideo</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Benson</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Minnewaska Area</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All West Central Conference</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1284153' first='Jay' last='Neubert'] of Sauk Centre (sr) </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1587155' first='Jack' last='Gross'] of BOLD (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1464341' first='Camden' last='Anderson'] of West Central Area (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1434979' first='Connor' last='Engelmeyer'] of Melrose (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2118471' first='Riley' last='Asmus'] of Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta (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='2375104' first='Andrew' last='Drevlow'] of Sauk Centre (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Bryce Kjesbo of West Central Area (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2104548' first='Gannon' last='Reidinger'] of Montevideo (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1284134' first='Ethan' last='Riley'] of Sauk Centre (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mitchell Dewey of West Central Area (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Third Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Devin Ashling of Montevideo (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Will Penkert of BOLD (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2445191' first='Drew' last='Huebner'] of Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Damian Ahrens of Sauk Centre (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Carson Boike of Montevideo (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Fourth Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Connor Anderson of Melrose (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Blake Brehmer of Benson (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2451433' first='Ben' last='Bye'] of West Central Area (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Charles Hanson of Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2372688' first='Cooper' last='Dack'] of Montevideo (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hudson Vosika of BOLD (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->