Five 4A 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 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. <hr /> <h5 style="text-align: center;">Mason City (7-13 last year)</h5> Mason City was 7-13 last year but their record did not reflect how well they played last year. They struggled through the first eight games of the season prior to finishing the year 7-5. Their point differential was just a single point through the entire season which shows you how tough they were able to play teams. The lost four of their games last year by four points or less and had one of the toughest schedules in 4A. While their schedule is going to be tough once again, they have gained a lot of experience over the last year or so. They were a young group last year and only lose two seniors, neither of which scored more than 4.5 points a game. Senior [player_tooltip player_id="107012" first="Jada" last="Williams"] and sophomore-to be [player_tooltip player_id="246120" first="Reggi" last="Spotts"] led the team last year. Spotts led the team in scoring with 15.2 points a game while Williams scored 14.8 points a game. Three of their top four scorers return from a season ago which should put Mason City in a great spot. <h5 style="text-align: center;">Newton (5-16 last year)</h5> Newton has gotten more competitive over the last few years and I think this season is the year that they hit double-digit wins for the first time since 2015-16. They lose three of their top scorers from a year ago but have played a ton of players over the last few years. They return five of their top eight scorers from a year ago and four of those are seniors. I expect that Newton will take a step forward this year on the back of the play of their seniors. If they are going to reach double-digit wins then their seniors will have to lead them there. Junior-to be Audrey Rausch is their leading returning scorer at 8.1 points per game. She will be relied on to push that closer to 15 points a game this year and also increase her rebounding numbers. Fellow seniors [player_tooltip player_id="163336" first="Aurora" last="Nehring"] and Kealey Manning each scored four points a game last season and will be relied on to carry some of the scoring load this year. <h5 style="text-align: center;">Webster City (3-16 last year)</h5> Despite winning just three games last season, Webster City was quite a team to handle. In fact, if they would have had a few possessions go their way early in the season we could be easily looking at a team that wins 10 games last year. They lost their first five games of the season last year and four of those were one possession losses as they lost by three or less points in all of those games. Looking at the rest of the year they lost seven games by 12 or less points so it was shown that in 80 percent of their games they lost they were really competitive. Webster City does lose two of their top three scorers from a year ago but they return quite a bit of talent. Look for them to lean on returning top scorer senior [player_tooltip player_id="129072" first="Kelly" last="Stoakes"] who scored 7.9 points a game a year ago. Webster City will be just fine this year as they should be able to get some bounces go their way this year. <h5 style="text-align: center;">ADM (9-15 last year)</h5> ADM was a very solid team last year and played some really good games. They struggled at times against teams from their conference but those teams were very good. Their opponents were a combined 171-120 last year which was one of the better schedules in 4A. Look for ADM to grow from last year as some of their players have really improved. ADM will be returning their top scorer from a year ago as junior-to be [player_tooltip player_id="63069" first="Nicole" last="Storck"] comes back after scoring 11.3 points a game last season. They also return two key players from last season as seniors Claire Greenslade and Olivia Tollari return for their final year. Greenslade scored 6.5 points a game last season while Tollari scored 5.8 points a game last year. Look for ADM to push up their win total this year. <h5 style="text-align: center;">West Delaware (4-17 last year)</h5> West Delaware lost seven single digit games last year and will look to correct their close games this year as they have a great chance to do so. They return their four top scorers and their highest scoring senior scored just 3.3 points a game. This is going to be a veteran squad that has gotten a lot of run together over the past few years and generally that leads to a really good season as those classes come through as juniors. West Delaware’s leading scorer is Ella Koloc as the returning senior averaged 12.3 points a game last year. West Delaware will also look to some other returners as senior-to be Kala Felton scored 6.7 points a game and is also returning this year. Watch out for West Delaware this year as they have the potential to do something &nbsp;