Way Too Early Class 2A District Outlook

[IACentralHawk73]

It’s a very new look Class 2A in a number of ways in 2023, maybe my most anticipated class to watch unfold.

District 1: Central Lyon/George-Little Rock
Replacing a talent like Zach Lutmer is tough, but Reece Vander Zee is a pretty nice replacement to have. Lions return quite a bit from their state title team a year ago, Western Christian could have a say in this one too.

District 2: Spirit Lake
Indiana appear to be a heavy favorite in this North Central Iowa district as they return Caden Lundt and Bode Huggins at QB and RB. Clarion-Goldfield-Dows could be a sleeper here otherwise.

District 3: New Hampton
This all-northeast Iowa district has a lot of teams going through rebuilding years on paper, but New Hampton gets the slight edge over Osage. Braden McShane is in line for a monstrous senior year.

District 4: Monticello
This district quietly has a chance to maybe be the most entertaining district in 2A, with NFV and Northeast Goose Lake returning a lot from solid teams last year. But it’s going to be tough for anyone to slow down Preston Ries, so I’m riding with the Panthers.

District 5: Mediapolis
This very well might be the weakest 2A district, but I’m riding with the tradition-strong Mepo Bulldogs. Still a good chunk of talent from last year’s squad. Davis County might be another team to watch.

District 6: PCM
This league feels like a two-team race between the Mustangs and West Marshall, but the Mustangs appear to have more pieces returning off a playoff team from last year. Ben Gonzalez could have a huge tear for the Trojans, however.

District 7: Van Meter
Bulldogs are replacing virtually every key contributor from their state title team last year, sans RB Ben Gordon, who could be in for a 2,000+ yard season. Otherwise, this appears to be the Bulldogs district to lose.

District 8: Carroll Kuemper
The Knights are coming off a surprise season last year, with a playoff appearance in 1A before bumping back up. DJ Vonnahme leads the charge as a one-man wrecking crew on both sides. Greene County and Roland-Story will also be in the mix here.

 

[usfhawk]

Good picks!! Should be an interesting year. Seems like alot of 2A teams are losing alot of very good Srs.

Preseason Top 10
1: CLGLR
2: Van Meter
3: West Lyon
4: Western Christian
5: Greene County
6: Monticello
7: Spirit Lake
8: Osage
9: West Marshall
10: North Fayette Valley




D1: IMO The toughest 2A district by a large amount. CLGLR/Western/West Lyon all are top 10 teams. On top of that Unity will be athltic with some very talented young guys. Sheldon loses some athletes but will have one of the biggest OLs in the state 6'4" 270 across. Cherokee will be improved with a very talented young QB.

CLGLR will be the team to beat. Losing Lutmer is a HUGE loss. IMO he was the best player in 2A. Vander Zee and Eben will need to have a big role. It will be interesting to see if they move Vander Zee to QB.

Western returns alot of talent from last years top10 1A team. QB and top RB are both back along with some talented WRs. They will need to replace some guys up front and alot of tackles on defense.

D2: Middle of the pack district. Spirit Lake should be the clear front runner here. They return a solid QB/RB combo, but will need to replace alot on defense. Clarion will lose a very solid senior class from last year. Estherville return Owen Larson but alot of ? marks after that.

D3: Teams in this district had great 2022 seasons, but it looks like almost every team in this district graduated alot of quality SRs.

Waukon and Cresco graduated almost all of their offense.
New Hampton loses a solid group but does return McShane.
Osage and North Fayette Valley return the most.

This will be an interesting district to follow. Deep with quality team, but who will emerge as the top team. Are there any 2A top 5 teams?

D4: District 4 teams had an everage BCMoore ranking of 31.8 last fall. Monticello should run away with the district on the back of Ries. The Iowa commit will be one of if not the top player in 2A this fall.

D5: D5 and D4 will battle for the weakest 2A district. D5 has the edge just because D4 has Ries. Mediapolis will be the favorite here, but they have alot of spots to fill. This district champ would have a tough time getting inside the top 4 in D1 AND D3.

D6: West Marshall and PCM will be the favorites here in D6. They like many 2A teams were hit hard by graduation but they do return their top back who ran for nearly 1400 yards last fall. Vinton Shellsburg moves down from 3A, don't know alot about them.

D7: Van Meter will roll through D7.

D8: Greene County, Kuemper Catholic, and Roland story will all compete for D8. DSM Christian also may have something to say about the D8 playoff spots.

 

[FootballJunky23]

Good picks!! Should be an interesting year. Seems like alot of 2A teams are losing alot of very good Srs.

Preseason Top 10
1: CLGLR
2: Van Meter
3: West Lyon
4: Western Christian
5: Greene County
6: Monticello
7: Spirit Lake
8: Osage
9: West Marshall
10: North Fayette Valley




D1: IMO The toughest 2A district by a large amount. CLGLR/Western/West Lyon all are top 10 teams. On top of that Unity will be athltic with some very talented young guys. Sheldon loses some athletes but will have one of the biggest OLs in the state 6'4" 270 across. Cherokee will be improved with a very talented young QB.

CLGLR will be the team to beat. Losing Lutmer is a HUGE loss. IMO he was the best player in 2A. Vander Zee and Eben will need to have a big role. It will be interesting to see if they move Vander Zee to QB.

Western returns alot of talent from last years top10 1A team. QB and top RB are both back along with some talented WRs. They will need to replace some guys up front and alot of tackles on defense.

D2: Middle of the pack district. Spirit Lake should be the clear front runner here. They return a solid QB/RB combo, but will need to replace alot on defense. Clarion will lose a very solid senior class from last year. Estherville return Owen Larson but alot of ? marks after that.

D3: Teams in this district had great 2022 seasons, but it looks like almost every team in this district graduated alot of quality SRs.

Waukon and Cresco graduated almost all of their offense.
New Hampton loses a solid group but does return McShane.
Osage and North Fayette Valley return the most.

This will be an interesting district to follow. Deep with quality team, but who will emerge as the top team. Are there any 2A top 5 teams?

D4: District 4 teams had an everage BCMoore ranking of 31.8 last fall. Monticello should run away with the district on the back of Ries. The Iowa commit will be one of if not the top player in 2A this fall.

D5: D5 and D4 will battle for the weakest 2A district. D5 has the edge just because D4 has Ries. Mediapolis will be the favorite here, but they have alot of spots to fill. This district champ would have a tough time getting inside the top 4 in D1 AND D3.

D6: West Marshall and PCM will be the favorites here in D6. They like many 2A teams were hit hard by graduation but they do return their top back who ran for nearly 1400 yards last fall. Vinton Shellsburg moves down from 3A, don't know alot about them.

D7: Van Meter will roll through D7.

D8: Greene County, Kuemper Catholic, and Roland story will all compete for D8. DSM Christian also may have something to say about the D8 playoff spots.

I agree with you PNation! If I were to rank the districts I'd go: D1, D3, D8, D7, D2, D6, D4, D5

D1: Very strong district. 3 legitimate top 10 teams, maybe even top 5 teams. CLGLR, West Lyon, and Western Christian will battle it out and I'd be surprised if all 3 didn't make it to at least the round of 16 in the playoffs.

D2: Solid district but mostly carried by Spirit Lake who should be very good. It'll be interesting to see the playoff matchups here, mostly likely with D1 teams.

D3: Really solid district that will be a grinder week to week. There will be good team who will unfortunately miss the playoffs most likely. Not sure if there is a legitimate title contender in the group this year though.

D4: Not a super strong district. Monticello should be good with their stud QB but they might be the only team to win a game in the playoffs from this group.

D5: Similar to D4 - not a very strong district. There might be a team or two who will make the playoffs from this district that would not be close if they were in some other districts.

D6: Decent district. There will be some road trips, especially for PCM. I'd expect the Mustangs to win this district with West Marshall also being good but down a little bit from the past few years. I don't think there are any top 5 caliber teams.

D7: Van Meter will dominate this district and is a big time title contender, but there will be some competition for the 2-4 spots. Centerville, Interstate 35, Clarinda, and Clarke will battle it out.

D8: Pretty strong district overall. Carroll Kuemper and Greene County are both top 10 caliber teams who will battle for the top spot. DMC and Roland-Story are both solid programs that return some playmakers and could make some noise. Then you also have the 2021 2A state champions in SEV in the mix as well.