Five 2A Teams Who Will Be Most Improved

As we near the start of the Iowa High School season, we want to take a look at some of the teams who we believe will be the most improved this year. Here are five 2A 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. <hr /> <h5 style="text-align: center;">MVAOCOU (7-15 last year)</h5> Last season MVAOCOU finished 7-15 but did not have a senior on the roster. This season should be a better one for MVAOCOU as they bring back a very experienced crop of players. Six of their losses were by single digits and two of those were by a single point. If they can get a few more buckets to fall this season then they are in a really good spot and have the potential to win 12-14 games. Senior-to be [player_tooltip player_id="163352" first="Ashlyn" last="Blake"] scored 14.0 points a game last year and added in 2.8 steals a game. Fellow senior-to be Anna Heck scored 6.3 points a contest last season. Incoming junior Ashley Rosener scored 8.0 points a game this past season. Those three players are going to be big impact players for MVAOCOU as they look to surpass the .500 mark this year. <h5 style="text-align: center;">Colfax-Mingo (5-16 last year)</h5> Colfax-Mingo had seven games that finished in a single digit spread last year. At times, it just didn’t seem that luck was going their way. This year they are without the services of two seniors that graduated, but only one of them scored over a point a game. They are a team led by guards with juniors Abigayle Rawlins and [player_tooltip player_id="127633" first="Carley" last="Underwood"] running the show. Rawlins scored 10.7 points a game last year while Underwood scored 8.8 points a game last year. Senior-to be Kyra Lester scored 5.0 points a game last year and will be a really important factor to their success this season. Their schedule was tough last year as their opponents were a combined 182-161. Look for their schedule to soften a little this year and allow Colfax-Mingo a few more wins. <h5 style="text-align: center;">East Marshall (3-16 last year)</h5> East Marshall opened the year last season with a win and then fell in three consecutive games. They then won two of the next three and then fell in each remaining game during the season to fall in 12 straight games. This year might be a little different for them as they were extremely young last season. They only had a single senior on the team last year and that senior only scored 2.8 points a game. They played four freshmen last year and were led by freshman [player_tooltip player_id="246116" first="Morgan" last="Neuroth"] last year as she scored 10.2 points a game. Junior-to be Delaney Runner scored 7.1 points per game last year and senior-to be Ellie Hull scored 6.4 points last year. They are going to be much improved this year as they have gained a ton of experience. I look for them to push near 8-10 wins this season. <h5 style="text-align: center;">West Central Valley (9-13 last year)</h5> This was a team that I looked at and was just a bit confused on how they finished under .500 for the season. Looking at their schedule you see that they played some really good opponents with Panorama, Des Moines Christian, I-35, among others. They also lost seven games via single digits on the season. They also return all but one player from a season ago. They return a 18.4 points per game scorer in senior-to be [player_tooltip player_id="129088" first="Madelyn" last="Jaeger"] and will be getting junior Isabella Munoz back as well. Munoz scored 7.9 points again and will look to lead the team this year along with Jaeger. Look for them to win upwards of 15 games this year and for Jaeger to come into her own as a player. <h5 style="text-align: center;">Pleasantville (10-11 last year)</h5> Much like the teams above, Pleasantville had a ton of losses that were by 10 points or less. They had six losses that were by single digits or less and all of their wins, save one, was by more than 10 points. Look for Pleasantville to come back strong this year and have a bit more ammunition for those big games. They only lose two players who played substantial minutes last year. Those two players averaged a combined 11.7 points a game last year. Pleasantville returns their three leading scorers from a team a year ago in seniors [player_tooltip player_id="163355" first="Malorie" last="McKinney"], Adi Adreon, and Rachel Harvey. They combined to average 26.3 points a game last year and will need to bring that up to compete this year. I look for them to take a solid step forward this season.