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Who will be the power houses in the big 9 during the 2009/2010 season?

Without knowing who is returning I would put them in this order.
1 Faribault
2 Century
3 Mankato West
4 Albert Lea
5 Mayo
6 Owatonna
7 Winona
8 Mankato East
9 John Marshall
10 Austin

Where do you have Mankato East?

Frozen Water wrote:Without knowing who is returning I would put them in this order.
1 Faribault
2 Century
3 Mankato West
4 Albert Lea
5 Mayo
6 Owatonna
7 Winona
8 Mankato East
9 John Marshall
10 Austin

Is Albert Lea really better than Mayo, Owatonna & Winona? I guess I could go along with the rest.

Century should win the big 9 again this season. Their first line will lead them with Raehsler leading them at D with two solid goalies.

my picks
1-Century
2-Faribault
3-Albert Lea
4-Mankato West
5-Owatonna
6-Winona
7-Mayo
8-JM
9-Mankato East
10-Austin

Nodak Sioux wrote:Century should win the big 9 again this season. Their first line will lead them with Raehsler leading them at D with two solid goalies.

my picks
1-Century
2-Faribault
3-Albert Lea
4-Mankato West
5-Owatonna
6-Winona
7-Mayo
8-JM
9-Mankato East
10-Austin

I think you better go back and check who won the Big 9 last year. Century had a share with Albert Lea.

Century should be as good as anyone in the conference with an upstart Faribault team coming along. It has always been that this is the year for the Falcons with this group of kids. It should be interesting to see if they can live up to expectations. I do think that the experience that they have gained as young players the last couple of years should help.

After Century and Faribault I think there are about 4 teams who will be really close to start and I think it will be a matter of who can step up and join that top tier in the conference. Though I find it hard to pick on of these other teams to win, I do believe that someone could be surprised on any given night, especially with the good coaching and experience.

Although my angle won't be ideal this year to follow these clubs, I'm gonna do my best to add my 2 cents.

I agree Faribault and Century will be preseason favorites. After that there are 4-5 teams that are really close and can occasionally upset those top two favorites.

It will be fun to see if Faribault can live upto the hype and pressure, I think they will have a good year but fall short at the end.

I also agree with Century and Faribault being the better teams in the conference. This is how I see it could possibly be.

Faribault
Century
Owatonna
Winona
West
Mayo
Albert Lea
JM
East
Austin

Mayo will fall off dramatically this year. Last year was the year and Grosso played his seniors 90% of the time. Their top returning goal scorer has one goal. I don't think they get anybody from the Bantam A Team . Austin or Mayo at the bottom?

Getemupscout wrote:Mayo will fall off dramatically this year. Last year was the year and Grosso played his seniors 90% of the time. Their top returning goal scorer has one goal. I don't think they get anybody from the Bantam A Team . Austin or Mayo at the bottom?

Mayo. Obviously.

anidesx did you really mean that Mayo will finish below Austin?? If you did I recommend you cashing in your Username for this blog as it will be a long year reading your posts. If you havn't heard Austin is so bad that they elected to play 3 big nine teams twice this year. They filled the open spots with 2 against Sleepy Eye, Fairmont, and 2 against Lesuere/Henderson. They also kept Waseca and Windom on the schedule. They only play 7 conference games. I am not saying Mayo will be a great team this year after losing 12 seniors but c'mon. I am gathering you are a century or jm fan I hope. Mayo will be better than most people think however they will still finish no better than the middle of the pack.

1-Faribault
2- Century
3-Albert Lea
4- Owatonna
5- Mankato West
6-Winona
7-Mayo
8- Mankato East
9- JM
10-Austin

Faribault returns a group of juniors that competed against a very good Lourdes team. That's why I rank them as a preseason favorite. I expect my West Scarlets to have a mediocre year, graduating some of the last of the state tournament team two years ago except for Defensemen Matt Campbell and Forward Drew Weber.

itech22 wrote:anidesx did you really mean that Mayo will finish below Austin?? If you did I recommend you cashing in your Username for this blog as it will be a long year reading your posts. If you havn't heard Austin is so bad that they elected to play 3 big nine teams twice this year. They filled the open spots with 2 against Sleepy Eye, Fairmont, and 2 against Lesuere/Henderson. They also kept Waseca and Windom on the schedule. They only play 7 conference games. I am not saying Mayo will be a great team this year after losing 12 seniors but c'mon. I am gathering you are a century or jm fan I hope. Mayo will be better than most people think however they will still finish no better than the middle of the pack.

Watch.

I don't see Mayo finnishing lower then Austin either. However I can see them finnishing lower then East and JM. Mayos leading scorer returning had 1 goal.

Nodak Sioux you may be right. However the JV team last year did very well with the current seniors and juniors that will get there shot this year due to having a heavy senior team last year. I know, I am throwing out the JV thing here but this situation is JV players that were older and didn't get a shot due to the talent level of last years team. They are not great players but they are decent athletes overall. Besides Century, Faribault, the rest is up in the air besides Austin of course. Look at Albert Lea they lost I would bet 85% of there scoring by losing smerud and prihoda's line. They didn't have much scoring after that either so statistically they are in the same boat as Mayo. However Albert Lea will be relying on younger players to be successful and Mayo is again going to be Senior and Junior heavy. It should be very intersesting this year at least for the big 9. The conference again is going to be very weak overall this year but battles will occur within the conference.

Much like Roy Nystrom does Lorne Grosso will field a competitive team no matter the year. I doubt Mayo will win the conference, they were 3rd last year with a bunch of talent, but I suspect they'll be in the 3 -6 range by the end of the year. Both Faribault and Century have some high end talent returning but at both schools depth should be an issue. Owatonna, West, Albert Lea, and Winona all suffered pretty heavily from graduation but that seems to be the case every year, there will be kids that step up. JM and East were both very young and should be improved. I just hope Austin can turn their program around sooner rather than later.

it wasnt up to austin to play those confrence games. the other teams only wanted to play them once. other teams must just want to stack their stats!! but yes austin will definetly be in the bottom. i would like to see them win at least a game!

I am hearing all this hype about Faribault being a very good team. What have they done? I hear they have some good kids coming up through the program, but no names have been dropped. Could comeone fill me in.
Aside from the first comment, I think that JM might suprse some people this year. Century will have a good year. Mayo will struggle the entire year no matter what coaches they have. And besides, JM's coach has a sweet hat.

Faribault is getting a lot of preseason hype because this group of players have dominated the other District 4 youth programs since peewees. I know they are returning seven seniors and juniors Teske, Lipinski, Hullet, and Helgeson. Also, they have a pretty good sophmore in Parker returning. They don't have any superstars, but they have more depth than the other Big 9 schools which should keep them close to the top of the Big 9 standings.

I agree with peterdenton. I think JM might surprise some teams too, but not enough to be at the top of the big 9 with Faribault and Century. I still like Century's edge on Faribault.

Can't forget Faribault played a highly talented Rochester Lourdes team last year and stayed extremely close when they most of them were only sophomores and juniors that in itself speaks volumes. They all return for another year as juniors and seniors why wouldn't you think they're #1 in the Big 9

It doesnt matter becuase Mankato East Cougars are gonna take the title and then take the section 1A championship and ake some noise at State '10!!!! GRRRRR

This will be a three team race between Century, Mayo and Fairbault.
I don't think anyone else can compete.

Rookie19- mayo?! they will be lucky to compete with Austin!