Section 1A Profile: Change Equals Opportunity

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Section 1A has seen a ton of change recently which should allow for doors to open for a lot teams. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Super Summary</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Of the 20 teams in Section 1A, 13 of them have never made the state tournament. Goodhue and Rushford-Peterson have moved up to Class AA and while Southland is the top returning team and our pick to win the section, the Rebels lost three starters from a season ago. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The only teams of those 20 that had winning records last year were Houston, Kingsland, Schaeffer Academy, Southland, and Lewiston-Altura, and Lewiston-Altura was in Class AA last year. But when you think of that, out of 20 teams, only five of them had winning records a season ago. And to make this even more wide open, Houston, Kingsland, and Schaeffer Academy all lost several players that helped them get to those winning records, so again, wide open!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We come back to the fact that Southland has to be a big favorite with [player_tooltip player_id='2824353' first='Tate' last='Goergen'] and Henry Wiste returning along with some reserves. Many will look to Lewston-Alutra as a favorite as well and they should be, but when you lose a monster number producer like Zane Nelson you have some uncertainties you have to figure out. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Who else? Kenyon-Wanamingo has Oliiver Bauer, Lanesboro has Nick Taylor, [player_tooltip player_id='2846686' first='Charlie' last='Walker'] is a star in making at Hayfield, Kaaleem Reiland is a great athlete at Kingsland, [player_tooltip player_id='2829349' first='Reid' last='Hungerholt'] puts up numbers for Leroy-Ostrander, [player_tooltip player_id='1889041' first='Luke' last='Friese'] scored 19 a game at Schaefer, and Lyric Stadtler leads Spring Grove. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top 3 1A Players</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2386227' first='Oliver' last='Bauer'] of Kenyon-Wanamingo </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2824353' first='Tate' last='Goergen'] of Southland </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2829349' first='Reid' last='Hungerholt'] of Leroy-Ostrander</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three Teams That Should Improve Their Record</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Kenyon-Wanamingo (13-14 last season)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hayfield (8-19 a year ago)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Fillmore Central (12-16 last year)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><strong>Three Teams That Might Not Match Last Year's Win Total</strong></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Southland (28-1 a year ago)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Houston (19-9 last year)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Kingsland (16-1 last season)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->