The Wright County West Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Annandale won the league by four games a season ago and they will come into the 2024-25 the favorite once again.</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>: Annandale</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Between the pieces the team has back, the way they compete year to year as a program, and coming off of a 26-4 season, the Cards enter the season as a top five team in Class AA. They have the pieces to make a run this year and we think it could possibly be a 27 or 28 win season.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>: NYA, Dassel-Cokato, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted, Rockford, Watertown-Mayer</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Norwood Young-America was 11-16 last year and now moves over to the Wright County from the Minnesota River. They have a lot back including [player_tooltip player_id='2118836' first='Micah' last='Fenney'] who will be one of the better players in the league. Picking them to contend and picking them to maybe make a push close to top ten in AA seems like a lot, but it might not be as far off as some thing either. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Dassel-Cokato has their second leading scorer back but only two of their top seven guys are returning so there are a lot of spots to rebuild while many other teams that were good last year return a stronger portion of their line-ups. Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted won 16 games a season ago and the return a couple of their top scorers and four of their key players back from last year's rotation. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Rockford won 15 games a season ago and they have a nice portion of players that played last year returning in what is a very solid senior class. Watertown-Mayer was a couple games under .500 last year but they bring back just about everything from their line-up from a season ago. The Royals will be a big team and if Baird has recovered well from his injury they could have the depth to make a league run. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding</strong>: New London-Spicer, Litchfield</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>New London-Spicer lost their entire starting group and some of their reserves. The Cats are in a position where they will rely on a lot of new comers and they were a team that was a game under .500 a season ago. Lichfield won just six games a season ago and four of their top scorers from last year graduated. </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) Annandale</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(2) Norwood-Young America</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(3) Glencoe-Silver Lake</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(4) Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(5) Rockford</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(6) Watertown-Mayer</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(7) Dassel-Cokato</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(8) New London-Spicer</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(9) Litchfield</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All Wright County West</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2445568' first='Gavin' last='Wang'] of Annandale (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2126448' first='Colton' last='Purcell'] of Annandale (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Ehan Sonju of Glencoe-Silver Lake (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2118836' first='Micah' last='Fenney'] of Norwood-Young America (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2103397' first='Cody' last='Stapel'] of Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Second Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Zachary Wickenhauser of Norwood-Young America (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2118467' first='Ben' last='Walter'] of Annandale (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2618748' first='Nathan' last='Ragner'] of Watertown-Mayer (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jackson Yonke of Dassel-Cokato (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2488736' first='Gabe' last='Westman'] of Annandale (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Third Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Bradyn Daugs of Norwood-Young America (Sr) </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Zach Murphy of Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2423114' first='Lincoln' last='Busse'] of Glencoe-Silver Lake (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>isaac Ostlie of Watertown-Mayer (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2445445' first='Braden' last='Blanchard'] of Rockford (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Fourth Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Max Edwards of Rockford (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2491720' first='Alex' last='Stueven'] of Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2175461' first='Joren' last='Olson'] of Watertown-Mayer (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1582114' first='Caleb' last='Smock'] of Dassel-Cokato (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jaiger Baird of Watertown-Mayer (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Fifth Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Henry Janikula of Watertown-Mayer (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Brock Hartman of Annandale (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Connor Neid of Glencoe-Silver Lake (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Michael Mackenthun of Norwood-Young America (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2480990' first='Noah' last='Dietel'] of Litchfield (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Sixth Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Dylan Lofgren of Glencoe-Silver Lake (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Grant Kloss of Rockford (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Burke Maxwell of New London-Spicer (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Trey Tondera of Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Matthias Brunning of Litchfield (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->