I think it will be about the same as this past year. SE returns everyone except Lentsch, although she was certainly a big factor inside on both ends of the court. They have a couple girls who will have to fill her shoes.
H-D is gonna take a hit losing Barz, but they were also led by two talented freshmen who should be able to help keep them in the mix, along with Wragge who will be a senior.
Algona returns Wiseman and Strohman, but will need to replace a number of seniors. Good news is their lower grades are pretty solid (and tall).
And while I'm on that it seems like a number of teams across the conference will be adding depth in the coming years with some solid younger players, along with some taller athletes to make things that much tougher for everyone to compete with. I think overall in the next couple of years we're gonna see the conference as a whole start to improve a bit. Yeah we'll still all beat each other up, but it will hopefully begin to show come tournament time in the future.
That's something the boys side has benefitted from for a number of years, although most of the 3A teams keep getting taken out by Waverly-Shell Rock every year.....(even when they're favored!)
Garrigan should improve somewhat as they return 3 of their top 4.
Clarion-Goldfield is still gonna be up-and-down but they'll be led by Sann who should be among the top players in the conference next year.
Clear Lake will probably be the strongest contender to oppose St. Eds next year as they return their top 3 scorers. They do lose 3 of their top 7 players but usually have good enough depth to make up for it.
Humboldt and Webster City are continuing to improve and should be better next year, but they may still be another year or two away from being able to make a jump back into the middle of the conference.
The Cadets will probably take the biggest hit as they graduate 8 seniors. Ites and Wilbholm will provide the spark for IF-A, but only one other player returns that has scored any points in a varsity game.
Lastly, Eagle Grove will be an interesting case to watch over the next few years. They graduate only 3 seniors, although they were 3 of their top 6, but their younger girls are gaining a lot of experience and they've been as competitive in some games as they've been in years. They almost upset West Hancock at the start of the season and got a nice win over CWL in their regular season finale, 70-37. A game like that can really serve as a confidence booster for a team, and program, that's fallen on hard times like they have.
They also opted to move all their freshmen to JV/varsity so those girls got plenty of upper level experience this year, which should only serve to help them in the future.
I'm not saying "look out for EG to be a contender in 2 years!", but they're doing some good things to try and get their program turned around and I certainly think they'll improve on their 3-19 mark next year.
