The Heart O Lakes Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Heart O Lakes Conference has some of the best Class AA talent in the state of Minnesota with DGF, Pelican Rapids, Perham, and Hawley all going at each other in fun ways last season. Pelican Rapids won the conference but it was Perham that went through Hawley, Pelican Rapids, and DGF in section play to reach state. This year? Should be a lot more fun.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Ten in State: </strong>Perham</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Perham went to state last year and they return their two all league players plus a couple other starters for this winter. Between the talented prospects, the experienced talent, the coaching, the chemistry, and everything else, Perham will start this season as a top ten team and the Heart O Lakes favorite. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Ten in State Potential</strong>: Pelican Rapids, DGF, Hawley</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Pelican Rapids, DGF, and Hawley are all outside of the top ten but not too far out of it. Pelican Rapids won the league last season and like Perham, the Vikings have both of their all league players back as well as two other starters returning. Pelican Rapids will be an experienced team that will start the year a few spots outside the top ten. DGF has the best player in the league in DGF committed [player_tooltip player_id='962228' first='Owen' last='Leach'] but unfortunately for Leach and his team, several of last year's starters graduated. Leach is talented enough to keep them good plus DGF has always been strong at developing talent. With two all league players and several experienced players back from a 17-8 team Hawley should also be very good once again. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>: Barnesville</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Barnesville had a winning record last year at 14-11 and they also have two all league honored players returning. Can they crack the top four in the league? It's possible. I surely had them under ranked in the recent power rankings update as this team has a chance to win 18-19 games (there are only 12 league games by the way). </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding</strong>: Breckenridge, Frazee</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Breckenridge won only five games last season and they graduated a decent share of their starting group. Frazee scored only 46 points a game last year but they should have the experience edge vs Breckenridge. That said, these teams did split last year but the Broncos won the second game by a large margin. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>22-23 Conference Predictions</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol><li>Perham</li><li>Pelican Rapids</li><li>DGF</li><li>Hawley</li><li>Barnesville</li><li>Breckenridge</li><li>Frazee</li></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All Heart O Lakes Conference</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='962228' first='Owen' last='Leach'] of DGF (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1288685' first='Micah' last='Thompson'] of Perham (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1339995' first='Soren' last='Anderson'] of Perham (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1492613' first='Ian' last='Fahje'] of Pelican Rapids (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1284216' first='Timmy' last='Guler'] of Pelican Rapids (jr)</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='962254' first='Sam' last='Senske'] of Hawley (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1419970' first='Brevin' last='Stoa'] of Hawley (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Tate Inniger of Barnesville (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Zach Bredman of Barnesville (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Alex Ohm of Perham (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Third Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mason Gratton of Hawley (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hunter Williams of Pelican Rapids (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='962265' first='Tanner' last='Tollerud'] of Pelican Rapids (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Alex Sanchez of Breckenridge (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1339997' first='Jacob' last='Daniels'] of Perham (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->