The Sting from Yellow Medicine East has some enthusiastic kids who are looking forward to the season ahead. Despite a 4-22 season last year, Coach Jake Suter sees this group of kids as leaders in helping grow the YME program overall.

A good portion of the offense will return this season. Many of the senior players coming back have been playing varsity sine their freshman and sophomore seasons. They understand the growing pains they’ve gone through and are ready to have a much improved season with some additional expectations.

Seven guys who had plenty of action return this year. Blake Lindstrom scored 17.3ppg last year and shoots the ball well when left open. He’ll be looked upon to create more scoring for other kids this year as well. Chase Richter is another who can score averaging 12.1ppg last season. Chase is the ultimate team player. He’ll do whatever it takes for his squad to win. Other kids who’ll be asked to play big and be physical include Tyson Velde(5.7ppg/6.5 rpg), Grant Lalim, Ted Sjurseth, and Jacob Guertin. The team does have a long bench that they’ll be able to use for various roles this year. That is kind of a bonus for them to have versus years past.

Effort on defense this year is going to be a very good barometer to how the Sting will fare overall. Big games already in December vs BOLD, Redwood Valley, and TMB will have section implications for a potential home game when the tournaments begin. This is something that the Sting would like to achieve this year. These teams are also teams who’ll be looking to represent Sub-Section 3AA North in the Section finals along with Montevideo, who the Sting play twice in January. LQPV & YME have had quite a few wild games that past few years too.

West Central Conference brings some good squads that will contend for titles. Teams like Montevideo, BOLD, Paynesville, and ACGC are looked at potential winner in their halves of the conference. Competition in this one is ever improving and being competitive each and every time out is key.

This year’s team has some good athletes who really play hard. The key is going to be remaining confident when there is adversity. Some of these long past few seasons, do weigh on the kids mind and that will be something Coach Suter and assistants Nate Dahlager, and Barry Weidhauer will assist with.

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