The Dakota XII Preview
The Dak XII Preview is up as we get ready for a big winter of high school basketball in South Dakota. Conference Commentary State Title Favorites – Dell Rapids, Dakota Valley, Dell Rapids made the start tournament last year as…
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Continue ReadingThe Dak XII Preview is up as we get ready for a big winter of high school basketball in South Dakota.
Conference Commentary
State Title Favorites – Dell Rapids, Dakota Valley,
Dell Rapids made the start tournament last year as the chemistry formed and the young talent stepped forward. Four starters are back from last year, Carter Nelson is ready to make a post impact, and only two seniors from the rotation left. With skill all over and size up front, with more experience than most we like what Dell Rapids has to offer. Dakota Valley has the league’s best player and some good supporting pieces back meaning they are a contender. Decent amount of graduated spots to replace though so a few questions, but Paul Bruns is good enough to lift this team against a close competitor.
State Contenders – Lennox, SF Christian, Vermilion
Lennox finished third in state last year plus they return their top two guys and 6th man. Expectations are high and they should be, but keep an eye on who fills the roles of Ihnen and Anderson.
As far as the SF Chargers go, they always have a “we don’t rebuild, we reload” kind of theme to them as of late. Sure six of their eight rotations players are gone but Witte is back up front, Van Beek is ready to step in a big role, and there is quality talent coming up. They have a quality junior class. Madison is kind of in that same mold as the Chargers in that they reload, but so many seniors were lost from a 17 win team. Take note of the way they played better than people expected after all they lost, and Tappe/Brown is a good combo, but can they match 17 wins again?
Don’t sleep on Vermillion! They went 14-9 a year ago and return much of their rotation! The question is “can they take the next step” and that’s something everyone is waiting to see. But there are encouraging signs.
Compete with Most – Canton, West Central
Canton should take a step forward from their 7-win team led by Kayden Verley and a host of returning players both young and old. Much of their rotation returns. West Central won 13 games a year ago but they are getting small and young really quick. The biggest returning player is 6-foot-2 and the Trojans had only one junior on the varsity roster last season.
Rebuilding – Elk Point Jefferson, Tea Area, Tri Valley
The Huskies should take a step forward with junior Sam Aslesen leading the way but it’s still a work in progress. Tri-Valley is our unknown. On one hand the Mustangs graduated their size, about 60 percent of their line-up, and have only one senior with any type of experience. On the other hand this is a good group of juniors that could win games. And Riley Haynes is a solid junior that could lead them.
Tea Area rebuilding doesn’t mean that they are going to be bad, or can’t win a lot of games, it just means their roster is going to look entirely new as it’s mainly last year’s successful JV stepping into the varsity spotlight. It’s tough to know how a team full of new varsity players is going to react to that. And will they have the “weight of the graduated seniors” winning title on their shoulders OR will this Tea Area group have the “nobody expects anything from us” kind of approach?
19-20 Conference Predictions
- Dell Rapids
- Dakota Valley
- Sioux Falls Christian
- Lennox
- Madison
- Tea Area
- Vermillion
- Canton
- Tri-Valley
- West Central
- Elk Point Jefferson
Preseason All Metro Athletic Conference
First Team
Paul Bruns of Dakota Valley (Jr)
Kayden Verley of Canton (Sr)
Josh Arlt of Lennox (Sr)
Zach Witte of SF Christian (Sr)
Collin Rentz of Dell Rapids (Jr)
Second Team
Jakob Dobney of Vermillion (Jr)
Will Daugherty of Lennox (Sr)
Xavier Van Beek of SF Christian (Jr)
Tyler Tappe of Madison (Sr)
Kaleb Johnson of Lennox (Sr)
Third Team
Garrett Kolbeck of Tea Area (Jr)
Max Mayer of Vermillion (Sr)
Drew VanRegenmorter of Dell Rapids (Sr)
Carter Nelson of Dell Rapids (Jr)
Drew Addison of Dakota Valley (Sr)
Riley Haynes of Tri-Valley (Jr)
Fourth Team
Connor Mulder of Tea Area (Jr)
Logan Ellingson of Dell Rapids (Sr)
Connor Rentz of Dell Rapids (Jr)
Cody Brown of Madison (Sr)
Sam Aslesen of Elk Point-Jefferson (Jr)
Derek Eidsness of West Central (Jr)