2025 Early Storylines
After a busy summer of travel lacrosse and our fall ball season, I am finally back into analysis mode for the upcoming spring. Although we are a ways away from the start of the 2025 season, I have been having some interesting conversations lately with coaches and fans about the spring of 2025. We saw the graduation of some extremely talented players that made their mark on Minnesota lacrosse. We also have pretty strong 2025 and 2026 classes across the state with a lot of contributors returning to their team’s this spring. P-Mac mentioned on the last podcast that he feels there will be a big shakeup and changing of the guard in MN high school lacrosse with the emergence of new programs at the top. We started to see it a little bit last year but ended up with two perennial powers in the final. Here are some “way-too-early” thoughts and conversations I have been having lately with DTA nation:
The Resurgence of the Lake
The Lake Conference proved to be the top conference in MN lacrosse last year. A once perennial “top conference” had a bit of a lull for a few years with heavy south suburban conference strength, but, last year flipped back in my opinion. A lot of very strong programs beat up on each other and even some of the less strong programs proved they were not easy outs in any game. Eden Prairie going to the state semi’s after moving into section 6, Minnetonka making it back to the state tournament with Edina and Wayzata being in the top 10 nearly the entire year. The Lake conference proved to be a true gauntlet. Add to this that many of these programs schedule extremely well outside of the conference (5 teams in the top 20 strength of schedule) made for an interesting dynamic. These teams maybe didn’t stand out as “dominant” during the season, but, became extremely tough come playoffs. Edina, EP, Wayzata, STMA and Minnetonka all made their respective section final game.
Edina’s Window
Edina has been in the conversation now for a few years with their all-in commitment to a strong 2025 and 2026 group. Their offensive group went out at the varsity level as freshman (and an 8th grader) and are now entering their 3rd year as a varsity group. They should get their best 2026 offensive player back from an injury that sidelined him all of last season. They return nearly their entire team. Every point recorded on lax hub except 3 goals and 2 assists is coming back this spring. Their goalie and 4 of their 5 poles are back. Their middies play two-way so they will have experience at defensive midfield. They were one goal away from the state tournament last year. In addition to all of the personnel returning, they played the 4th hardest schedule last year and went 11-4. On paper, nobody is running it back better than Edina this season and many believe they are the team to beat.
Contenders for Moorhead
Moorhead has been the cream of the crop for the past 4 seasons out of section 8 and in the greater Minnesota market. They have a great group of athletes and coaches and while last year maybe were not as dominant as the previous years, they still emerged from the section.
STMA: has given them a strong fight in the last few section finals but they lost a ton of their offensive production to graduation. They do get an experienced goalie back who was only a freshman last year. STMA has found their way to the last 3 section final games, so, the talent is there to contend.
Brainerd: They went from 3-11 in 2023 to 7-7 in 2024. Rumor has it they have a large/talented 2026 group, so, there could be something brewing up there around a great class to contend
Monticello - the former Buffalo coaching staff bumped over to Monti last season and turned a 7-8 team from 2023, into a 10-5 team in 2024. I am a big fan of their coaching staff. They have an elite, largely unknown, 2026 FO/M in Garret Bauer that posted a 79% win percentage last year and added 31 pts. There will need to be some additional production to get through Moorhead and STMA, but, they are headed in the right direction.
Battle for the East
Stillwater: This program is loaded with talent and built on top of a very strong youth feeder program. They were an electric bunch last year but ran into the buzzsaw, Lakeville North Panthers, in the state semi’s and once again fell one game short of the final. They return a lot of their top players as well as a superstar goalie and should once again be in the mix. I don’t think it’s a matter of if, but when, Stillwater makes it through to a final, is the 2025 group going to be the one to break through? They lose a defensive leader in Wyatt Carroll, offensive producer Brock Lynskey and FOGO Nick Hornbuckle, but, return nearly all remaining production from last year’s team. Section 4 can be a grinder and WBL gave them a game in last year’s final…. I do still expect them to make it to state tournament once again.
Eastridge was all the way back last season after a few lean years playing varsity with mostly freshman and sophomores. A strong group of 2025s and 2026s returning as well as a stud 2027 goalie, they should pick up right where they left off. They do lose a very under-rated FOGO, Brandon Muth, so that will be an area in question for me. Other than that, they are stacked again this year.
Woodbury continues to stay in the conversation and fell by one goal to the state tournament bound Eagan Wildcats last season. Like their district rival, Eastridge, they have a really strong group of 2025s and 2026s. They get their best offensive players back, not one but two elite level senior goalies and a strong group of athletes. They need to replace a handful of good poles and their FOGO. They will have no problem scoring. They have the foundation in goal. Woodbury should roll on as a contender in the east and section 3 again in 2025.
Life without generational talent
Every team deals with graduation. It is a constant in high school sports and it not an excuse for any team. However, I am curious how some of the premier programs will deal with losing some generational superstars this season:
The most obvious one for me is Lakeville North. Quinn Power is off to Utah and while LVN returns nearly the entirety of their team, Power was such a vibe for them. He was the straw that stirred the original “electric factory” drink in 2023 and last year was the “get on my back” guy to get them all the way back to the final. While I definitely do not discredit the amount of talent that they have on the team, he was an x-factor for them being able to play the way they did. This team has nearly everyone returning, except QP, so I don’t think a major drop is coming, but, will they need to rely a bit more on defense this year with possessions balancing out? Do they have the “next QP” on JV coming up we don’t know about? Time will tell.
BSM loses two of the best players to ever come out of MN in my opinion: Gus Bell and Sky Rold. Both of them were matchup proof and knew how to get the other players on involved offensively when all the attention was on them. They lost two All-State Poles and an All-state goalie. Let me be clear: I don’t question the talent returning or coming up. However, Can the depth players become the alphas? Between Brandt, Bell and Rold, they have had these 3 year starter alphas on offense since 2021 - This is the first time in years I am not sure who the offense runs through. That being said, at this point, they are still the champs until proven otherwise.
Jefferson, like Edina, has built a team around a very strong group of 2025s and 2026s. Division 1 talent on offense, defense and face-off, but there is a question mark between the pipes w/ the graduation of their star goaltender. Luckily for the Jefferson, their head coach is a former goalie and has shown ability to find/train goalies within the program and play a defensive-first brand of lacrosse that will give a new keeper the chance to be successful but will the Jags need to be more aggressive this year and lean on offense a bit more than years past?
Chanhassen saw a bit of dip this past season but still had a very strong core group of 2024s leading them to a 10-6 record and close game in the section final. However, with the graduation of that 2024 class they lost their starting goalie, two D1 poles, a D1 attackman and 70% of their offensive production. This could be a year they bring in a lot of new underclassmen and looks to be a rebuild year. However, their 14U-A team was very strong last year and were runner up at 12U A & B, so, I would expect some talented players are coming up the pipeline.
Prior Lake loses a two headed offensive monster in Max Anderson and Jack Tocko. They accounted for nearly half of the team’s points in 2024. Their defense will continue to keep teams locked down, but, like BSM, who steps up to take the reins of the offense. All signs point to George Tocko, who had a large role previously, being the one to carry the torch.
Growth of the Game, State Tournament and Other Musings
Once again, the talk about moving the state tournament to a better, neutral venue, has come up. It’s the same old story… as my old AD once said, “dreams are free.” However, I experienced TCO Stadium for the first time this fall when Team36 played some scrimmages there and yes, it would be the perfect venue for the state tournament. However, we are still just too small and unimportant (in the collective athletic scheme of things) to warrant any significant money/time investment into making that happen. Now… if there is someone/group of people who could lead that charge… maybe there is a chance. Until then, plan on watching the tourney from a high school stadium.
On a positive note - the MSHSL passed approval to have state tournament seeding 1-8 moving forward. There is no more “random draw” so, teams have nobody to blame but themselves for their seeding. It maybe makes regular season matter a little bit more? I’ll put my cynicism aside and be happy we moved in the right direction.
While the #GrowTheGame mantra has been over-used throughout the years, last year we saw some new programs emerge into MSHSL lacrosse (CEC, Duluth Marshall) which was great for our sport. Unfortunately, teams seem to be co-op’ing more than new programs being launched. I have heard rumors of another metro co-op coming in 2026 (nothing confirmed on that) and my guess is there will be more. The conversation of two classes for MN HS lacrosse has been a running one but until there are enough teams to do that, it’s a moot point. I hope to see more growth in southern and western MN over the next few years. There are some very good athletic programs outside of the metro that could be good additions. Alexandria, Wilmar, Marshall, growth in Rochester & Mankato, Albert Lea to name a few. I think when that growth happens, along with the continued growth in Duluth and Central Lakes, we can begin to have the discussion of two classes
But, to focus on the positive as I close: the people up on the North Shore have been putting in WORK to grow lacrosse and I just want to shout them out. I am sure the amount of unpaid hours has crossed a threshold that can no longer be measured, but, now we have 5 high school programs up there with multiple club and youth options as well - so, huge shoutout to them for that.