Losing one-thousand point scorers Jacob Gottenborg (leading rebounder, second leading scorer) and Oakley Kress (leading scorer), both 3-year starters for the Vikings, and two-year starter Nick Schermerhorn means a less experienced starting group to begin the season, led by senior forward Hayden Christenson (7.9 ppg, 4.4 rpg) and sophomore guard McHale Korf (9.6 ppg, 4.4 apg).  Eli Sytsma(SR, F), Reggie Funk (SR, F) and Jayden Rutherford (SO, G) are the other returning letter winners.

Senior Damien Britten (G), juniors Kirby Nelson (F) and Logan Petznick (G), and sophomores Logan Fahje (F) and Liam Sytsma (F) will also be in the mix for varsity court time.

"We like the makeup of this year's team as we have a bunch of guys hungry and ready to step into varsity roles," said fifth-year head coach John Gullingsrud.  "We will have to lean on Hayden and McHale early on in the season as the rest of our players gain valuable experience.  We lost a lot of minutes to graduations, so it will take some time for our new guys to learn how to compete at the varsity level.  If our guys focus on improving their defense, rebounding and teamwork continually as the season progresses, we should be capable of competing with the top teams in our conference and section."

Gullingsrud, who will be assisted by Adam Johnson and Derrick Nelson, sees Breckenridge, Perham and Hawley as the top teams in the HOL, while Mahnomen-Waubun, Henning, Ortonville and Parkers Prairie should be in the mix in Section 6A