The Wright County West Preview
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Watertown-Mayer won the league a season ago with a senior dominated line-up. Who will step up in their place this year? Let’s have a look! Conference Commentary Top Ten in State Potential: Annandale, Glencoe-Silver Lake I hope you got your…
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Continue ReadingWatertown-Mayer won the league a season ago with a senior dominated line-up. Who will step up in their place this year? Let’s have a look!
Conference Commentary
Top Ten in State Potential: Annandale, Glencoe-Silver Lake
I hope you got your licks in last year because Annandale is about to be very good once again. They won 15 games in their gap season and now they have everything back save a senior who was injured for a good part of last year. The Cards are a favorite not just for the league but I overlooked them a tad for section favorite as well. Mora, Albany and Sauk Centre surely are above them for section favorite right now but I should have had them in the top four, top five at least. Watch out for the Cards. Glencoe-Silver Lake struggled last year but odds are they will be a very good team. They have three of their top four players returning and one of those players, Eli Ehrke Eli Ehrke 6'3" | SG Glencoe-Silver Lake | 2024 State MN , is one of the best players in the state. It makes sense that GSL should be very good.
Compete with Most: Rockford, New London-Spicer, Dassel-Cokato, HLWW, Litchfield
Rockford lost their top four players from a season ago and they were once again bitten by the injury bug. They do have all of their role players back this year though and they are always a solid program so they will be in the mix somewhat. Dassel-Cokato has five of their top six back and they should be able to surpass 18 wins and get to the 20 win area. Maybe even surprise everybody
New London-Spicer lost seven of their top nine, but the returning are an all league player in Grant Paffrath Grant Paffrath 6'3" | SF New London-Spicer | 2024 State MN and Mason Delzer who was a double figure scorer. With two of their top three back and an undefeated JV looking to fill the spots, NLS should be in a good spot. Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted was very up and down each week going from a Rockford win to getting crushed by Rockford, and so on and so forth. They should be better as they return a guy from injury plus all but one guy is back from their rotation. Litchfield returns four of their top five from a team that did struggle last year (especially to score the ball). The Dragons can win, but I think only so much as their seems to be a talent ceiling, but they can compete, win a decent amount of games and play tough.
Rebuilding: Watertown-Mayer
Watertown-Mayer won 19 games but they would at times use ten guys and nine of them have graduated. Even if they scale down to seven this year for the rotation their line-up will have six new faces. So this is a rebuild when it comes to the line-up.
23-24 Wright County West Conference Predictions
- Annandale
- Glencoe-Silver Lake
- Dassel-Cokato
- New London-Spicer
- Rockford
- Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted
- Watertown-Mayer
- Litchfield
Preseason All Wright County West Conference
First Team
Eli Ehrke Eli Ehrke 6'3" | SG Glencoe-Silver Lake | 2024 State MN of Glencoe-Silver Lake (sr)
Caleb Purcell Caleb Purcell 6'4" | SF Annandale | 2024 State MN of Annandale (sr)
Nick Walter Nick Walter 5'10" | PG Annandale | 2024 State MN of Annandale (sr)
Grant Paffrath Grant Paffrath 6'3" | SF New London-Spicer | 2024 State MN of New London-Spicer (sr)
Gabe Aamot Gabe Aamot 6'0" | SG Dassel-Cokato | 2024 State MN of Dassel-Cokato (sr)
Second Team
Joshua Fiecke of Glencoe-Silver Lake (sr)
Cody Stapel Cody Stapel 6'4" | SG Howard Lake Waverly Winsted | 2025 State MN of HLWW (jr)
Ty Kulavik of Rockford (sr)
Mason Delzer of New London-Spicer (sr)
Jack McCann of Litchfield (sr)
Third Team
Gavin Wang of Annandale (jr)
Michael Foley Michael Foley 6'3" | SG Watertown-Mayer | 2024 State MN of Watertown-Mayer (sr)
Caleb Smock Caleb Smock 6'0" | SG Dassel-Cokato | 2025 State MN of Dassel-Cokato (jr)
Brandon Valdez of Annandale (sr)
Alex Zimmerman Alex Zimmerman 6'6" Howard Lake Waverly Winsted | 2024 State MN of HLWW (sr)
Fourth Team
Kasen Warner of Dassel-Cokato (sr)
Caleb Thinesen of Dassel-Cokato (sr)
Ethan Sonju Ethan Sonju 6'0" | PG Glencoe-Silver-Lake | 2026 State MN of Glencoe-Silver Lake (soph)
Mason Mochinski Mason Mochinski 5'8" Howard Lake Waverly Winsted | 2024 MN of HLWW (sr)
Braden Blanchard of Rockford (jr)
Fifth Team
Tucker Liestman of Litchfield (sr)
Ben Walter Ben Walter 6'1" | SG Annandale | 2026 State MN of Annandale (soph)
Graham Zuehlke of Annandale (sr)
Nikolas Keith of Dassel-Cokato (sr)
Blake Aller of Litchrield (sr)