Five 4A Teams Who Will Be Improved
Up next in our daily season preview articles are the five 4A teams who I think will show the most improvement in terms of gained wins. I only looked at the teams who had a winning percentage of under .500,…
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Continue ReadingUp next in our daily season preview articles are the five 4A teams who I think will show the most improvement in terms of gained wins. I only looked at the teams who had a winning percentage of under .500, and excluded the .500 teams from a year ago. The 12th article in a series of 73 highlights the five squads who I think will increase their win totals the most. Tomorrow I’ll have the five 5A teams who finished under .500 last season to keep an eye on.
Carlisle (10-11 last season)
Carlisle should be much improved this season and a lot of their success will rest on the shoulders of Drake softball commit Molly Hoekstra. Hoekstra scored 18.3 points a game to pace the team. Seniors Kennedy Preston and Delaney Schnathorst will also return to look to spell the scoring load. These two scored 9.5 and 5.4 points a game, respectively last season so we know that the ability for them to do so is there. Sydney Berg was the third leading scorer on the team last season at 6.7 points a game and it looks like she is in store for a big junior year. Carlisle was a super competitive team last year only losing two games by more than 14 points. I expect them to be an exciting team to watch and prove some doubters wrong.
Harlan (5-17 last season)
Harlan is gearing up for a big run in two years, but I think they are going to show some vast improvements this season. They are returning their top four scorers and a plethora of underclassmen to the fray. They have a quartet of juniors back to lead the charge this season with Jocelyn Cheek back as the leading scorer from a year ago. Macie Leinen, Brecken Van Baale, and Ashley Hall combined for 18.8 points a game last season and will undoubtedly be contributors once again. Harlan also has four returning sophomores that will play an integral role in leading them to a good season. While Harlan does have a tough schedule they have the ability to win a lot of games. If not this year, they’ll be very solid in the 2020-21 season.
Perry (1-20 last season)
For Perry, it is a relatively simple plan to improve this year and a lot of that rests on senior Molly Lutmer, who recently committed to Sioux Falls. Lutmer scored 14.8 points a game last year, which was over half of Perry’s total. As a team they only shot 27.1 percent from the field and 56.4 percent from the line. Even though those numbers looked bleak last year, this year should be much better with positive regression. Sophomore Jayna Kenney will be relied upon much more this year and will be expected to improve on her 4.2 points a game average from a year ago. Juniors Quinn Whiton and Ainsley Marburger will also look to provide a spark to this group and senior Hannah Peterson will look to add senior leadership. Coming off of a one win season, I fully expect them to win 5-7 games this year.
Storm Lake (3-18 last season)
The criteria for a team making this list was pretty simple. I looked for teams that had a lot of close losses last year and returned the bulk of their scoring, along with minimal senior output a year ago. Storm Lake bucks that trend as their leading scorer was a senior who averaged 12.1 points a game. I still think that Storm Lake will be improved with the players that they return. Senior Skylar Cole and junior Mary Yanga both will be back and shoulder a much bigger role. Cole actually shot 40.7 percent from the floor and could have a breakout year if that is replicated. Yanga is the top returning scorer and will be looking to push her scoring totals up into the double-digits. Storm Lake might not blow teams out of the water this year but I fully expect them to be much more competitive.
Webster City (8-14 last season)
This was a solid team last year who just fell victim to some last game shenanigans that led to some losses. They had five losses by 10 or less points and multiple losses just more than 10 points. If they can line up a little more consistent scoring then I believe they will really turn some heads this year. Taylor McKinney is back as the leading scorer from a year ago. The senior had an excellent year scoring 16.3 points per game while playing fairly efficient basketball. Grace Hoversten and Adalie Schawndt are also other seniors who are going to look to score the ball more. They showed that they had the ability last year by averaging a combined 12.2 points a game but this year they must do more. Their season will be defined by having a good third and fourth scoring option.