The Iron Range Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The best team in the Iron Range Conference last year was Deer River, again. Their league winning streak stands at 28 games. Who will be the best in 2024-25? We take a look today!</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>: Deer River</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Deer River won 21 games a season ago, they haven't lost a game in this league in years, and they have four starters returning. They have an argument to be legit top ten, and not just top ten potential. [player_tooltip player_id='2103407' first='Caiden' last='Schjenken'] was the league MVP last season and he is back. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>: Rock Ridge, Chisholm, Greenway</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Rock Ridge won 18 games a season ago but they lost a good chunk of their top contributors. That said, they have one all league honored players back and a couple reserves so they should still be one of the more competitive teams in this league. The separation between the teams in this category - at least in the games played - was pretty strong. For example, Greenway has a couple all league players back but they lost to Rock Ridge last year by 37 and they lost to Chisholm by 21. But they do have the best big and prospect in the league, and Greenway looks like they should be better. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mesabi East is getting their own category because its hard to project them competing with most when their games with the teams in that category were so lopsided, but at the same time this is a senior team that should be better, so they aren't rebuilding. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding</strong>: International Falls </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>International Falls won just three games a season ago and they have only one senior this year. They have some good juniors but it feels like it might be one more year before they start getting wins in this league. </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) Deer River</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(2) Rock Ridge</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(3) Chisholm </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(4) Greenway</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(5) Mesabi East</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(6) International Falls </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All Iron Range</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2103407' first='Caiden' last='Schjenken'] of Deer River (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1582113' first='Cale' last='Jackson'] of Deer River (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2100912' first='Stephen' last='McGee'] of Greenway (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Ethan Lauzen of Chisholm (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2442535' first='Gage' last='Olson'] of Greenway (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='2446759' first='Hayden' last='Sampson'] of Mesabi East (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Eli Devich of Rock Ridge (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Cooper Sickel of Mesabi East (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Nick Bakkedahl of Deer River (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Dom Pascuzzi of Chisholm (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Third Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Landon Budris of International Falls (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Lawrence Bowstring of Deer River (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Camren Jones of Mesabi East (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Will Kemp of Rock Ridge (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Colin Robertshaw of Greenway (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>HM</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Lawrence Oberg of Chisholm (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2569251' first='Kevin' last='Doerr'] Jr of Deer River (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Joey Aho of Rock Ridge (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->