NJCAA Div. 2 North Plains District Preview
The 2023 National Runner Up District looks just as deep as ever.
Welcome the national runner-up district in the North Plains. Corn Fields and the great white north. Southeastern IA came so close to winning it all last year but fell just short. This year is going to be just as competitive across the board from Region 11 to Region 13.
Iowa Lakes is only up from last year. After just a 4 win season anything is an up move. They do have some solid pieces. New Staff, New guys. They should have a better season than last year but this is a tough tough conference and District.
North Iowa Area has gone through to coaching realm and has finally had a guy there for a few years. They have a solid team and it looks like they are going to rely heavily on the Speed and the bats. They are going to be fast and they are going to snag some bags.
Dakota County Tech is the little brother of the north. They look to have a solid team and are going to be interesting to follow. They will steal some games and wreck a couple of teams' weekends if they are not careful.
Iowa Central is going to be young but athletic.
Ellsworth has a ton of new faces. 8 returning guys with 35 newcomers. They should be solid. But will have some early-season struggles until they figure out some stuff.
Southeastern (IA) is coming off a National Runner up. They are going to be interesting. They lost some key parts but kept a few others. They have the potential to go deep with the mix of new and old.
Teams/Previews
Region 11: Des Moines Area, Ellsworth, Iowa Central, Iowa Lakes, Kirkwood, Marshalltown, North Iowa Area, Northeast (NE), Southeastern (IA)
Region 13: Bismarck State, Dakota County Tech, Dakota-Bottineau, Dawson, Lake Region State, Miles, Williston State
Pre-Season All-District Team, Predictions, and Team to Watch Behind the Pay Wall
Pre-Season All-District Team
*Pre-Season Player of the Year, + Pre-Season Pitcher of the Year
INF: Cade Grevengoed - Northeast (NE), Sam Skarich - Southeastern (IA) - ULM, Kannon Coakley - Des Moines Area, Will Couchman - North Iowa Area - Northern Illinois
C: Caleb Wulf - Southeastern (IA) - Iowa
OF: Miles Risley* - Kirkwood - Iowa, Tanner Short - Ellsworth - Nevada, Dilon Kuehl - Des Moines Area - Troy
P: Camden Kaufman - Des Moines Area, Jacob Crissinger+ - North Iowa Area, Easton Johnson - Iowa Central
Prediction
Des Moines Area
Kirkwood
North Iowa Area
Bismarck State
Iowa Central
Noah’s Team to Watch: Des Moines Area
Could this be Des Moines Year? They return all but 1 starting pitcher from last year's team that went 31-25. Yes, that's a 500-ish team but that is a huge thing to have back, especially for a team in this district and region. The offense is going to be just as load. Des Moines is going to be a problem for alot of teams with that mix of pitching and hitting and them being a bit older of a team.