Monday, December 14, 2020

Class, District Assignments Released for Basketball

 Class and district assignments were released for basketball by MSHSAA Monday. Worth County barely made the cut for Class 1, with 74 students enrolled. After speculation that MSHSAA would drop the enrollment threshold, they did so this year, dropping it to 78. Class 1 basketball power Platte Valley also came under the threshold, at 72 combined students. 

Worth County was assigned to District 15, and will see some new faces this year. They will be paired with DeKalb, Pattonsburg, St. Joseph Christian, Stanberry, Union Star, and Winston. 

On the boys side, the district is loaded, with Pattonsburg, St. Joseph Christian, Stanberry, and Winston as favorites along with Worth County. The Tigers’ Friday contest at Christian will be a key contest; not only will it affect GRC standings, it will affect district seedings as well. Winston is undefeated as of Monday; they have only been challenged by two teams and their smallest margin of victory this year is 16 points. MSHSAA no longer uses the multiplier to classify charter and private schools, meaning that Christian has dropped to Class 1 this year. Two years ago, while competing in 11 man football, Christian was forced to travel to Maryville for the first round of districts.

The girls side will see Stanberry as a favorite; they beat Worth County by 30 at the start of the year. Pattonsburg and DeKalb will also be teams to watch. Union Star will also compete.

North Nodaway and Northeast Nodaway will face the unenviable task of playing in District 16 with Platte Valley and Mound City. Other teams will be Nodaway-Holt, South Holt, and West Nodaway.

The boys side will be loaded; Mound City will be a favorite with its two headed monster of Landon Poppa and Tony Osborn, both of whom can dunk. South Holt is usually solid, Platte Valley, while off to a bad start, is still a team to watch, and West Nodaway is loaded, with everybody back from last year. Nodaway-Holt is much better than last year, with two wins already under its belt after one all last year.

For the girls, Platte Valley has designs on the State Title this year; they are 15 players deep and beat Maryville and Serena Sundell 53-50 Friday. South Holt graduated their best post player, but is still solid; Mound City has a lot of size and is trying to combine it with speed like the boys team is. Nodaway-Holt has one of the better post players in the area in Shaina Culp, and West Nodaway showed some improvement from last year despite their Game 1 loss to Essex (IA).

North Harrison will be in District 14 along with East Harrison, Gilman City, Grundy County, Linn County, and Tri-County. 

On the boys side, North Harrison will be a favorite with traditional power Mercer rebuilding this year. Their 74-64 win over Tri-County turned out to be important for district seeding purposes. Grundy County has jumped out to a promising 3-1 start. For the girls, Mercer has designs on going back to state; they have talked Dan Owens out of retirement to coach the team, and they are one of the most physical teams in the area. Tri-County has emerged as a solid team over the last few years; they are a difficult matchup with anybody with their chaotic style. Grundy County, which has risen as a power in the HDC over the last few years, is rebuilding; this year has been feast of famine for them with two blowout wins and two blowout losses. Gilman City played Princeton tough at the start of the year. Princeton, the elephant in the room, moved up to Class 2.


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