Dec. 9—DAWSON — The Dawson-Boyd boys basketball team will be without two towering presences to defend its Class A state championship.
Standouts Brayson Boike and Drew Hjelmeland have both graduated and are both playing college basketball at Division II Southwest Minnesota State. Between the 6-foot-8 Boike and the 6-7 Hjelmeland, that's 38.9 points, 19.0 rebounds, 9.7 assists and 3.1 blocks per game from last season's team.
Three starters return for the Blackjacks for their title defense.
"It'll be hard to duplicate last season; this team will need to take on a new identity," said D-B head coach Cory Larson. Entering his 20th season, Larson has a 369-159 record. His assistant coaches are Keifer Stratmoen and Justin Wager.
"The three returning starters will all have different roles on this year's team, which means a new group of role players," Larson said. "Overall, this group has a chance to be competitive."
The backcourt will have plenty of experience from last season's team that went 30-3 overall and 17-0 in Camden Conference play.
Gunner Liebl, a 6-1 senior guard, returns after averaging 18.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game. Liebl was a second-team All-Area pick and an All-Camden selection. He's already scored more than 1,000 career points.
He'll be joined in the backcourt by Carson Stratmoen. The 6-foot junior averaged 7.2 points, 2.0 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game.
Also back is junior Jaxton Hastad. The 6-4 forward had averages of 9.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.
Three other letterwinners return for the Blackjacks in senior Landon Kemen and juniors Mason Bothun and Ace Larson.