The Pelican Rapids boys’ basketball team won the Section 8AA championship a season ago, finishing with a 24-8 record. This year, the Vikings will be among the favorites in Section 6A as their enrollment figure dropped them down a class. Head Coach John Gullingsrud is in year number 12 leading the team. He will be assisted by Dave Rund (Varsity Assistant), Adam Johnson (JV) and Derrick Nelson (C Team).
Returning starters are Seniors Miguel Torres (G) and Jack Welch (F), and juniors Ethan Isaman (G) and Grady Larson (F). Other returning letter winners include seniors Maclain Hovland (G) and Sidiiq Farah (G), juniors Andon Roisum (F), Tyson Tollerud (F) and Tate Marich (G), and sophomores CJ Fahje (G) and Trey Dokken (G). The Vikings will also be expecting seniors Keagan Nettestad (G) and Colton Walters (G), and sophomore Michael Honrud (F) to step up to the varsity level.
“We have a nice core of players returning from last season that have multiple years of experience playing at the varsity level,” acknowledged Coach Gullingsrud. “We will have good size overall on the interior and also return veteran players on the perimeter. We will need to have players step p to replace the perimeter shooting that we lost to graduation and will need to be better with our individual defense and rebounding in order to repeat the success we’ve had the past few seasons."
Gullingsrud points to Park Christian, Henning, Breckenridge and West Central Area as the top teams in Section 6A, while Staples-Motley, Perham and Breckenridge will be the Vikings main challengers in the Heart O’ Lakes Conference.