The 8AAA Profile: Willmar, Sartell Lead the Pack

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>When Alexandria moved up to Class AAAA, for the rest of 8AAA it was kind of like seeing your big brother go off to college and now you get the best bedroom, it's now your chance to dominate the pantry, it's now you that gets to walk around the school as the top dog. The door has opened and chances are right there for teams!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>8AAA Power Rankings</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol class="wp-block-list"><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Sartell</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Willmar</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>St. Cloud Apollo</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Detroit Lakes</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Fergus Falls</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Sauk Rapids-Rice</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Rocori</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>St. Cloud Tech</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Little Falls</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>The Section 15</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em><strong>First Team</strong></em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1560795' first='Maddox' last='Lewis'] of Sartell-St. Stephen (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2119642' first='Avery' last='Christensen'] of Willmar (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1874917' first='Micah' last='Nwachukwu'] of St. Cloud Apollo (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2728383' first='Damarion' last='Moss'] of Detroit Lakes (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Brody Woods of Rocori (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em><strong>Second Team</strong></em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2560448' first='Cooper' last='Schnichels'] of Willmar (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2434316' first='Micah' last='Johnson'] of Fergus Falls (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>DeAnthony Sells of St. Cloud Apollo (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2382519' first='Eston' last='Bethel'] of Fergus Falls (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Dawson Vonruden of Detroit Lakes (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em><strong>Third Team</strong></em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Moulid Abdi of St. Cloud Tech (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2560535' first='Trevor' last='Terfehr'] of St. Cloud Apollo (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2833317' first='Ty' last='Rudolph'] of Sauk Rapids (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2910350' first='Isaac' last='Bergstrom'] of Sartell-St. Stephen (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Ikenna Nwachuckwu of St. Cloud Apollo (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Bennett Bomersbach of Sartell-St. Stephen (Sr) (injured, expected back late in the year)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>One Thought Per Team</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Detroit Lakes. The door is open for the Lakers. With Alex and Montevideo out and Sartell losing their second best player, this is a team that should contend. Moss will be one of the best players in the section, Vonruden will be one of the best shooters in the section, and they have some young talent coming up. Need to get some things inside, Brendan Severson is a guy we have our eyes on for that. A senior.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Fergus Falls. Likely the team right in the middle. The reason for that is I think they have good up and coming players but they lost so much veteran talent that it might take awhile. [player_tooltip player_id='2434316' first='Micah' last='Johnson'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2382519' first='Eston' last='Bethel'] making decisions together in the backcourt will keep them in the top five. Good guards equals good basketball. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Little Falls. Won four games a season ago and only has a few seniors. There are a lot of returning guys from the rotation though so they should be more competitive but pry still a single digit win team. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Rocori. The [program_tooltip program_id='2075852' first='Spartans' last=''] took quite a graduation hit and while I think Woods is going to have a great year, they have to replace a lot of veteran playmaking. Seems like it will be tough to bridge that gap really fast. Competitive yes, but not sure they can be a contender at all. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Sartell-St. Stephen. This was my favorite and I think I will leave them there as this is still a veteran team, but losing Bennett is very tough. He is one of the best five players in the league and while he will likely get back at the end of the year, you never know what is going to happen. Some of these injuries take two years to really get back to where a player was, and then you have [player_tooltip player_id='1560807' first='Isaac' last='Olmstead'] who is already playing and playing well. Who knows. But I like the combo of a top guy (Maddox), experience returning, size in Bergstrom that others don't have, and dropping down a level after fighting in AAAA. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Sauk Rapids-Rice. The Storm took on the biggest upset of the AAAA playoffs last year, then they lost three seniors to college sports, and then lost a top 20 level talent to transfer. That is a lot to take on and quickly get back up to task contending wise. The Storm does have some good players and I think they will get some wins, but that is a lot of blows to take at once. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>St. Cloud Apollo. Apollo has a chance to be a deep team if the chemistry fits right. I think Sells has a chance to be very good this year, Micah will be a top scorer in the league, Terfehr made 82 threes last year scoring 11 a game as a frosh. Apollo has a chance to be a solid team if the pieces all fit. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>St. Cloud Tech. I like Tech's chances to go from four wins to closer to ten. Moulid Abdi and [player_tooltip player_id='2873622' first='Nick' last='Brakes'] are two good upperclassmen and there are seven guys returning that played last year including a couple good young guys. Tech should take a step forward.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Willmar. I almost put them at number one after the Bomersbach injury. [player_tooltip player_id='2119642' first='Avery' last='Christensen'] is about to have a monster season (a Northern State commit) and they have other pieces like Schnichels who can do things around the basket that other teams don't have. But they also won just nine games a season ago with a poor league record and two Ls to Sartell so they got a lot to prove first. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->