ON THE BENCH

By Byron Higgin, Mascot Publisher

Minneota dominates the all-area team
Tony Noyes of Minneota got a nice honor last week when the Marshall Independent picked him the Player of the Year for football in this area.
I have to admit I hadn’t thought about who would be the Player of the Year.
Afterall, while Noyes had 47 catches for 781 yards and nine touchdowns, plus 606 yards rushing and nine touchdowns and 14 punt returns for a 21.3 average, plus two touchdowns — he wasn’t the only Viking with great stats.
How about quarterback Sam Derynck, who passed 225 times, completed 137 for 2,152 yards with 34 touchdowns, only seven interceptions and a percentage completion rate of 60.9. He had 34 touchdown passes. And, he ran for for another 215 yards.
Then there was Brandon Anderson, who had 249 rushing attempts for 1,863 yards and 34 touchdowns. He had an average of 7.5 yards per run.
Now, considering these stats, it would have been hard to pick between the three.
Any of them would be a great choice. I do congratulate Tony!
Six others also made the Independent all-area team. They included Derynck, Anderson, center Jacob Horner, Mike Hammer,  Jacob Cheadle and Will Kurka.
Congratulations to all of them.

ODDS AND ENDS:
•VIKING CHAMPIONSHIP APPAREL available.
Those of you who want apparel from the Minneota Vikings championship football season can get it by going to the Minneota school website at Minneotaschools.org. There is a heading for the apparel.
However, it will only be available until Sunday, so make sure you check it out as soon as possible.
•Minnesota’s premier wrestling magazine, the Guillotine, last week ranked the Minneota Vikings the No. 1 team in Class A.
That was, of-course, before the St. James Tournament last Saturday.
In addition, they have four Vikings ranked in the top 10 in individual weight classes.
Of-course, these are hard to use because of weight changes, meaning different opponents.
One of the four, Mike Hammer, is out for the season.
The other three include: two-time state champ Christian Skillings in second place at 125 pounds, just behind Bronson Steuber of Jackson County Central.
At 130 pounds, Beau Buysse, a second place finisher last year, was ranked in the No. 1 slot.
Also getting a ranking at 152 pounds was Sam Derynck.
The top five in this weight class are:
1. Ryan Thompson, Benson,
2. Tucker Freeman, Jackson County Central.
3. Cody Tibbetts, Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial
4. Sam Derynck, Minneota
5. Shawn Johnson, Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton.
Several Yellow Medicine East and Canby wrestlers also are amongst the top-ranked individuals.
Take a look at the Class A rankings (Scoreboard, Page 7). It’s loaded with area teams. Besides Minneota, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg (defending state champ) is ranked sixth; Canby is ranked 12th and mentioned as under the top 10 is BOLD.
It should be an exciting year.