The Central Minnesota Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Eden Valley-Watkins and Paynesville Area were the class of the league by four games last year. What does the CMC look like this season? It's going to be a lot more competitive game to game! </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 Potential</strong>: BBE</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>With two all league players back and a few reserves returning, BBE has a real chance to win this league and make a run in Section 6A. That's a very, very tough section that might have five of the best 20 teams in Class A, but looking deeper, BBE might be better than we first thought. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>: Eden Valley-Watkins, Paynesville Area, ACGC, Kimball Area, Royalton</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Eden Valley-Watkins returns their top scoring option but the rest of the rotation has graduated. They have some seniors that were on the JV and some up and coming sophomores but after their top scorer it's a line-up rebuild. Like EVW, Paynesville Area lost a ton to graduation. They have one starter back and one reserve but the rest of the roles have to be filled by younger players and inexperienced upperclassmen. ACGC was 14-13 a year ago but they have a quality big returning plus two other starters and a 6th man. Among contenders they might have the most back from last year's team. Holdingford is a major team of interest here. [player_tooltip player_id='2524653' first='Dawson' last='Hofer'] is the top scorer in this league now but can his team be a contender? They will surely improve on their 9-win season but last year they were 0-8 against the four teams in front of them in the standings and six of those eight games weren't close. They need to close the gap there to be contenders. And Kimball Area. They have all their top producers back and should be improved, but they had trouble scoring consistently in this league last year. Will this year be different? Then there is Royalton. Will it be different for them? They have had a few rough years but those players that went through those rough years are now seniors with experience. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding</strong>: Maple Lake</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Maple Lake lost all their league games, won two league games last season, and they lost their all league player to graduation. They have only two seniors this year so it looks like another rebuilding season. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>24-25 Conference Prediction</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(1) BBE</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(2) Eden Valley-Watkins</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(3) ACGC</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(4) Holdingford</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(5) Paynesville Area</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(6) Kimball Area</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(7) Royalton</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(8) Maple Lake</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All CMC</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2524653' first='Dawson' last='Hofer'] of Holdingford (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Wyatt Moehrle of Eden Valley-Watkins (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Marcus Forsythe of ACGC (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2620265' first='Hayden' last='Sobiech'] of BBE (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jed Spaulding of Kimball Area (Sr)</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='2449402' first='Luke' last='Illies'] of BBE (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Owen Mortenson of Kimball Area (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Tucker Johnson of ACGC (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2445574' first='Bryant' last='Knaus'] of Kimball Area (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Ethan Albright of Royalton (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2420590' first='Reed' last='Johnson'] of Paynesville Area (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Third Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jaxon Drange-Leyendecker of ACGC (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Braedon Hansen of Royalton (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Josh Walstromg of BBE (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Carter Flanders of Paynesville Area (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Prestan Lilleberg of ACGC (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Brandon Hall of Holdingford (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Second Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->