Minn Starks 17U National won its final two games Sunday to finish 2-2 in The Players’ Platform last weekend at Hyvee Arena in Kansas City, MO.
Starks was led by 6-foot-5 Duluth Marshall sophomore-to-be Brooks Johnson, a rising Division I prospect. Denfeld standouts Aidan Altona and Finnley Powell, both 6-foot-2 seniors-to-be, are also on the team.
Unfortunately, the new currency of leadership is visibility. You’re judged not by budgets balanced or streets repaired, but by how many times your face appears on a feed. The ribbon-cutting is no longer the celebration of work done; it is the work.
Sewell has a chance to become one of the premier players in northeastern Minnesota, and the Lumberjacks have enough returning talent around him to remain a factor in Section 7A.
The modern Duluth enjoyed by residents and visitors did not emerge by accident. It was built by people willing to invest their talent, resources and leadership in a city they believed could become more than its industrial past.
Senior forward Beau Christy (27 GP, 27 G, 17 A, 44 Pts) is the player everyone in Class A should know entering next season. He led Hermantown in goals and points and averaged 1.63 points per game. Nearly 40 percent of his points came from goals.