Monday, August 4, 2008

Will Middleton Be the Center of Attention: A Preview of Boys Sectional Four

There are seven. There will be one. And we really only know anything about three. That, friends, is our boys sectional four preview in a nutshell.

The six who will by contending for a ticket to the state championships in Tosa are Beloit Memorial, Burlington, Central (formerly Westosha Central), Madison Memorial, Madison West, Middleton and Mukwonago.

The first of the three we know something about is Middleton. The Cardinals appear to have all the pieces in place for another deep run at state (they lost in last year's semis to Catholic Memorial). A key loss from that squad will be all-state setter Peter Wong, but they return 10 letter-winners and seven of eight from last year's rotation, including versatile 6'6" junior Michael Owen, who could contribute as an outside, setter or opposite. Senior Alex Harbour will bring his devastating serve and ability to hit from all three front row positions. Senior middle Dane Maier returned from a knee injury to play a key role in last year's state tournament and should have a strong senior season. Also look for junior middle Will Kraus and senior libero Casey Koenig to play huge roles.

Central is an up-and-coming team that will sneak up on many this season and pass more than a few of them. They're led by junior Jim Schultz and sophomore setter Dayton Erickson, who recently teamed with Catholic Memorial's Dan Caspar to win his age division at the Bradford Beach Jam.

Burlington has middle Harris Jorgenson, one of the best and most underrated players in the state, and if the Demons don't make it to Tosa, they'll certainly prove to be a very tough out. Jorgenson was first team all-southeast conference, all-Racine county. and honorable mention all-state. Another key contributor should be senior Kyle Ketterhagen, who was honorable mention all-southeast.

Madison Memorial, Madison West, Mukwonago and Beloit Memorial are proving to be ungooglable and our eyes are getting blurry trying to wade through various Volleyball Magazine discussion threads. We apologize for the incompleteness of this report. Help if you care to. Thanks.

Our prediction: Middleton over Central in five on Middleton's home floor.

Tomorrow: Boys Sectional Five

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

oops... commented on the wrong one before... my bad...

but we dropped Westosha and are just Central High School

VBuberalles said...

Central it is. We'll make the change above.

Anonymous said...

you also missed Mad West... they are in our sectional

VBuberalles said...

Yikes, we'll amend above. Does anyone have any insights on Madison West or any of the other teams that are lacking. E-mail vbuberalles@gmail.com if you do. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

I know that Burlington has Kyle Ketterhagen who is a senior and was a "Player to Watch" in the JS's preview last year.

VBuberalles said...

Thanks, we'll add him to the preview at some point.

Anonymous said...

burlington beat central twice last year (in 4 games each time) and only lost two players. they have replaced both of them.

Anonymous said...

kyle ketterhagen was HM all southeast conf.

harris jorgenson was first team all southeast conf. and all racine county. and HM all state

Anonymous said...

burlington beat central in 4 during conference play and in 5 during sectionals... not 4....

Anonymous said...

no it was 4 in sectionals actually. im 100% positive.