Five 5A 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 5A 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;">Cedar Rapids Jefferson (1-16 last year)</h5> Cedar Rapids Jefferson could not get into a groove last year as their first game was not until December 15th. They had their first six games either canceled or postponed. Once they started to play games they ended up losing a lot of close games and played a very tough schedule. The games that they didn’t end up playing would have mostly been games that they would have won. The next few years could be very solid for Jefferson as they have a trio of juniors who can score at a very high level. [player_tooltip player_id="342210" first="Emma" last="Slings"] scored 12.5 points a game last season while [player_tooltip player_id="63028" first="Jariah" last="Harris"] scored 10.3 points a game. Fellow junior [player_tooltip player_id="160554" first="Aubrey" last="Luvan"] is a quick guard who added in 7.9 points a game to round out the top three returning scorers. I look for Jefferson to have a big bounce back year this year. <h5 style="text-align: center;">Prairie (8-9 last year)</h5> Prairie finished 8-9 last season in a bit of an abbreviated season and were outscored by 1.5 points per game. They were competitive in every single game that they played in as their biggest loss last season was just 16 points. The majority of their losses were by 12 points or less on the season. They were much better than their record even as you look at the strength of their opponents. Their opponents were a combined 156-115 on the season. Prairie does lose their top two scorers from a year ago but those two players combined for just 16.9 points a game. Prairie was a very young team last year as they had four freshmen in their top seven scorers. Their leading returning scorers are senior-to be [player_tooltip player_id="63589" first="Kamryn" last="Grissel"] and junior-to be [player_tooltip player_id="314099" first="Catie" last="Reittinger"] who each put up 7.5 points a game last year. Prairie is going to simply reload this year and push their win total up. <h5 style="text-align: center;">Fort Dodge (8-10 last year)</h5> Fort Dodge struggled with consistency last season as they lost seven games by more than 20 points and five by more than 30 points but their point differential was just half a point. They also had their fair share of blowing teams out last year. While this team was a bit hot and cold last year, they are going to be improved this year as they are returning their three leading scorers from a year ago. Senior-to be Aleah Pommer led the squad with 12.1 points per game and will look to push that up to near 15 points per game this year. Fellow senior Tory Bennett scored 11.1 points per game last season. Another senior Jalen Adams returns as the third leading scorer as she scored 6.1 points per game. Look for Fort Dodge to great a couple more wins this year. <h5 style="text-align: center;">Dubuque Hempstead (4-16 last year)</h5> Dubuque Hempstead went 4-16 last season and did that while being a young team. Their opponents were 162-122 on the year and they did not win a game against a team over .500 while going 4-1 against teams under .500. They were also able to keep the score close in most of their games as seven of their games were 12 point or less affairs. Now, Dubuque Heampstead’s solid core has a year of experience under their belt and will be looking for improvement. Sophomore-to be [player_tooltip player_id="314126" first="Camdyn" last="Kay"] scored 8.2 points a game last season while senior-to be Carleigh Hodgson also scored 8.2 points a game last year. They were well-rounded scoring the ball and we expect that to be the case again this year. Look for them to be a very improved team from last year. <h5 style="text-align: center;">Davenport Central (6-8 last year)</h5> Davenport Central played an abbreviated schedule last season and had just one game prior to January 5th last year. A few of those games they would have won last year as this was a very solid team. They lost two games by five points last year and fell to Iowa City West in the Region 6 semifinal by 10 points. This team does have quite a bit of returning talent as well as they return three of their top five players. [player_tooltip player_id="129058" first="Adriauna" last="Mayfield"] will be heading to her senior year as the leading scorer off of the team from last year. She scored 11 points a game last year and Davenport Central also returns Bria Clark who scored 9.3 points a game last year. Senior-to be Aniah Smith scored 7.7 points per game last year and will also be returning this year. This is going to be a very veteran squad which should lead to good things for Davenport Central this year.