The defending Section 8AAA champion Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Rebels are the unanimous pick to win the 2026 section championship in the KROX Section 8AAA Football coaches poll. It was a tight vote for second through fourth place, with three votes separating the teams. It will be a competitive section again this year with everyone having a chance to win every Friday. It will be a fun regular season and even better postseason this year.
POLL RESULTS –
1. Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton – 7
2. East Grand Forks – 20
3. Perham – 21
4. Minnewaska Area – 22
5. Thief River Falls – 29
6. Morris/Chokio-Alberta – 32
7. Park Rapids – 44
DILWORTH-GLYNDON-FELTON REBELS – Coach Anthony Soderberg (18 years)
DGF went 9-3 last year. In the section playoffs, they beat Perham 35-0 in the semifinals and beat TRF 41-12 in the championship. At state, DGF beat Pierz 28-7 and in the semi-finals, they lost a heartbreaker 14-13 to Waseca. The Rebels have won four of the last six Section 8AAA championships!
Top Returners –
12 starters return from last years outstanding team!
Jace Baumgartner (Sr. RB/LB) is a stud and had 173 carries for 1,285 yards and 18 TD’s.
Michael Whitney (Sr. WR/DB) had 11 receptions for 219 yards last year.
Aiden Walton (Sr. RB/LB) had 8 carries for 94 yards and 2 TD’s last season.
Zander Opsahl (Sr. RB/LB) had 12 carries for 60 yards and 3 receptions for 51 yards.
Camden Leichtenberg (Sr. RB/LB) had 11 carries for 53 yards and 4 receptions for 35 yards and a TD.
Linemen – Brock Steen, Daniel Gonzalez, Nolan Dale, and Caden Nelson are all back!
Dawson Johnson (Sr. RB/LB)
Isaac Leiran (Jr. QB/LB)
Jay Fortier (Sr. RB/LB)
Top Newcomers –
Logan Thune (Sr. OL/DL)
Luke Kruger (Sr. QB/DB)
Jaxon Oman (Jr. RB/DB)
Will Olson (Jr. RB/LB)
Season Outlook according to Coach Soderberg – “We return many starters from last year’s state semifinal team, giving us valuable experience heading into fall camp and the first few games. This group has proven talent, and the players have worked hard during the offseason. Like every team, we still have a few lineup questions to answer. If we stay healthy and continue to come together, we should be playing our best football by playoff time and be a tough team to beat.”
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EAST GRAND FORKS GREEN WAVE – Coach Ryan Kasowski (13th year)
East Grand Forks was 4-5 last season, including a pair of losses by a touchdown to Perham and Pelican Rapids. They lost to Perham in the first round of the playoffs, 14-0.
Key Returners – Jake Stassen (QB), Jaxon Stassen (WR/DB), Traysen VanCamp (RB/LB), Rafael Jones (RB/DB), Cormac Doty (RB/DB), Xaveon Rodriguez (OL/DL), Evan Van Eps (OL/DL), Jack Dietz (OL/DL), Cayden Walsh (OL/DL), Trevor Johnson (OL/DL), Adam Farder (WR/DB), Cy Hjelmen (TE/DB).
Top Newcomers – Chayson Boespflug (WR/DB), Brody Ray (WR/DB), Hunter Nelson (OL/DL), Ben Hart (OL/DL), John Senger (RB/LB), Brady Anderson (RB/LB), Mason Buzick (RB/LB), Jakob Roberson (WR/DB), Jaxton Boespflug (WR/DB), Asher Riske (WR/DB), Darion Hall (WR/DB), Liam Doty (WR/DB).
Key Losses – Daij Hall, Jez Jones, Cole Schmiedeberg, Braden Overgaard, Brody Anderson, and Brody Knutson
Season Outlook according to Coach Kasowski – “We return a number of players on the offensive side of the ball, including our starting offensive line from last season. We’ll lean on that experience early in the year as we look for some newcomers to step up on the defensive side. The leadership within this group has been outstanding throughout the offseason, and we expect those leaders to continue setting the tone and leading this football team throughout the season. As always section 8AAA is very skilled, well coached, and tough. We will look for continuous improvement from our team as the season goes on.”
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MINNEWASKA AREA LAKERS – Coach Jared Lyle (6th year overall, 5th at Minnewaska)
Top Returners –
Miles Wildman: Miles is a two year letter winner going into his senior season. He rushed for 725 yards on 54 carries last year for an average of 13.43 yards per carry for 9 touchdowns. MIles also had 295 yards receiving for 4 touchdowns last year.
Gage Zenk (Sr) OL/DL, 6′, 185
Caleb Kath (Sr) QB/LB, 6’5″, 190
Preston Wilson (Sr) OL/DL, 6’2″, 245
Top Newcomers –
Cavin Thorfinnson (Jr) WR/DB, 6’3″, 190
Alex Adams (Jr) RB/DB, 5’11”, 145
Jaxson Grabowska (Jr) OL/DL, 6’3″, 235
Carson Beyer (Jr) WR/DB, 5’11”, 160
Isaiah Rosario (Jr) RB/LB, 160
Key Losses –
Asante Adams
Kearri Dickens
Marc Gruber
Riley Dell
Tristan O’Neil
Luke Danielson
Season outlook according to Coach Lyle – “Last year, we graduated a talented group of 18 seniors who brought a tremendous amount of experience and leadership to our program. Replacing a group that played that much football is never easy, but we are excited about the opportunity for the next group of Lakers to step into larger roles.
This year, we have another outstanding group of seniors who have embraced the responsibility of leading our team. Many of them have gained valuable varsity experience over the past few seasons and are ready to make a significant impact both on and off the field. Their leadership, work ethic, and commitment to our program will be important to our success this season.
We are also extremely excited about our junior class. With 15 juniors, we have a deep and talented group that has continued to develop and is ready to take another step forward. Combined with our senior class, we believe we have a strong core of athletes who are hungry to compete and continue moving our program in the right direction.
Over the past few years, we have worked hard to build consistency throughout our entire program, and we are beginning to see that growth at every level. Our players have continued to buy into our expectations, compete for one another, and understand what it means to be a Laker.”
There will certainly be new faces stepping into important roles this season, but that is something we are excited about. We believe in the young men in our program and are looking forward to watching them grow throughout the season.
Our goal is to continue building on the progress we have made, compete at a high level, and develop young men who represent our school and community the right way. We are excited about this year’s team, and with the young talent coming through our program, we believe the future of Laker Football continues to be very bright.
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MORRIS/CHOKIO-ALBERTA TIGERS – Coach Kevin Pope (13th year)
The Tigers went 5-4 last season and lost to Thief River Falls 21-7 in the first round of the section playoffs.
Top Returners –
Alex Asmus (WR/DB) – Had 730 yards and 8 TD’s receiving, ran for 42 yards and 1 TD. Had 19 solo and 20 assisted tackles and 3 INT’s.
Billy Young (OL/DL) – Had 5 solo and 19 assisted tackles, including 2 for a loss.
Riley Saito (WR/DB/K) – Had 16 solo and 14 assisted tackles with 2 INT’s.
Hunter Westerman (WR/DB/KR) – Ran for 63 yards and had 52 yards receiving. Had 13 solo and 10 assisted tackles and 4 INT’s.
3. Who will be your top newcomers?
Ben Hallman (WR/DB) – Had 6 solo and 12 assisted tackles and 2 INT’s last season.
Jack LeTendre (OL/LB) – had 11 solo and 35 assisted tackles last year
Benton Schaefer (RB/LB)
Key Losses –
Ozzy Jerome (QB/LB) – Threw for 995 yards and 14 TD’s and ran for 155 yards and 3 TD’s. Had 16 solo and 17 assisted tackles with 2 sacks and 2 fumble recoveries.
Jonah Huebner (RB/LB) – Ran for 228 yards and 4 TD’s, caught 18 passes for 134 yards and 3 TD’s. Was second on the team with 36 solo and 54 assisted tackles, including 7 tackles for a loss.
Jack Kehoe (TE./DE) – had 11 receptions for 168 yards and 2 TD’s, and had six yards rushing. Was third on the team with 25 solo and 47 assisted tackles, including 11 for a loss, 1 sack.
Kye Suess (RB/DE) – Ran for 273 yards and 2 TD’s, had one reception for 2 yards. Had 5 solo and 31 assisted tackles.
Jace Kleindl (WR/LB) – Had four receptions for 33 yards and 1 TD. Led the team with 42 solo and 79 assisted tackles. 4 for a loss, 2 INT’s and 1 defensive TD.
Grayson Gibson (RB/LB) – Ran for 308 yards and 2 TD’s and had 50 yards receiving and 1 TD
Henry Lundquist (OL/DL)
Season Outlook according to Coach Pope – “Last year’s senior class was heavy on skill players and light linemen. This meant that many younger linemen got invaluable experience and will be leaned on as the more experienced position group this year. The skill position group, even though they are less experienced, has potential. It also contains last year’s district WR of the year, Alex Asmus. We are looking for growth from the guys upfront, and for the skill players to keep improving. We have had a great start to practice and are excited to get the season started.”
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PARK RAPIDS PANTHERS – Coach Jeremy Nordick (19th year overall)
Park Rapids was 3-6 last season with a first-round Section 8AAA tourney loss to Minnewaska Area 49-6. They will be young, but look to make improvements every game with some pretty good young athletes.
Top Returners:
Jaden Davis (Junior OL/DL) Was an All District player last year.
Charlie Johnson (Junior OL/DL) All District Honorable Mention last year
Brady Hirt (Senior RB/LB) An interesting twist, he was an ALL District Honorable mention OL/DL last year.
Top newcomers- They will have a bunch of great young athletes and talent coming up.
Eli Jalbert (Sophomore WR/FS)
Zaden Kocka (Sophomore WR/CB)
Aiden May (Junior RB/LB)
Cobe Diekmann (Sophomore QB)
Brendan Tretbar (Junior LB)
Eli Gieseke (Junior TE/LB)
Brendan Carlson (Sophomore C/DT)
Sam Rowe (Sophomore TE/DE)
Nolan Michaelson (Sophomore LB)
Zack Brewer (Senior DB)
Ben Rowe (Senior T/DT)
Key losses –
Lost eight Seniors that all played both sides of the ball, and hardly left the field. Parker Hunter, went to MS-Moorhead, Carter Hirt went to St. Johns (Mn), Kaden Gartner MSU-Moorhead for Cross Country, along with the rest of last year’s Seniors that made a pretty big impact on Friday nights.
Season outlook according to Coach Nordick – “We will be very very young. With only five Seniors. We do return some guys up front that we’re excited about, and we’re also excited about the young dudes coming up in our skill positions. As it’s shown this summer, we’ve gotten better each time we take the field. So we need to grow up quickly in the first few weeks of camp to be ready for a very talented Perham squad. If we can improve week to week…by tournament time we will be in great shape.”
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PERHAM YELLOWJACKETS – Coach Jesse Hein (4th year)
Perham was 5-5 last season while going 4-2 in the regular season against section opponents. They beat East Grand Forks in the first round of the playoffs 14-0 and lost to DGF 35-0 in the semi-finals.
Top Returners –
Tiegan Detloff
Carsen Zeise
Jayden Bormann
Isaiah Farrell
Ryker Zimmerman
Top Newcomer:
Brody Blume
Season outlook according to Coach Hein – “We are excited about this group; they have put in a lot of time in the offseason preparing for this fall. We are looking forward to a great season, seeing that hard work pay off.”
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THIEF RIVER FALLS PROWLERS – Coach Kurt Reynolds (6th year)
The Prowlers went 3-5 during the regular season last year before winning the first two rounds in the playoffs by beating Morris Area 21-7 and Minnewaska Area 28-21 to advance to the Section 8AAA championship where they lost to Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 41-12 to wrap up a great finish to the season, where they won five of their last seven games!
Top Returners –
Offensively –
Spencer Anderson (he thought about doing the Junior Hockey route this fall, but it is good to see he will return for his senior year!) He had over 700 yards and 10 touchdowns at fullback last year, and will be the quarterback this year to replace Bridger Wilcox.
Ian Winter – had 335 yards rushing and 3 TDs.
Linemen Chander Pream and Brody Arlt.
Defensively-
Hudson Brouse at LB had 79 tackles and 5 forced fumbles last year.
Ian Winter – S and CB had 74 tackles.
Jaxon Van de Streek is returning at CB and had 2 interceptions.
Top Newcomers –
David King at WR and CB
Jaxon Van De Streek at WR and CB
Keaton Dallman OL
Knute Hams DL.
Key Losses –
Bridger Wilcox (S and QB) now at Minnesota Crookston to play basketball, Tucker Grindeland (WR, CB, and return specialist)
Joey Bruggeman (OL and DL).
Season Outlook according to Coach Reynolds – “We installed a new offense last year, the Gun Triple. It was a major change from the Power T which we ran for my first four years. But we were losing athletes who didn’t want to just play tight end, so we moved as far away from the Power T was well could. It worked as I recruited Bridger to come back out for football (he hadn’t played since 8th grade) and I hounded Spencer to come out too (again, he hadn’t played since 8th grade back in Michigan). It worked. I got the two top athletes in school to come back out for football. They both were QBs, so they split time early in camp, our scrimmage, and then our first game vs DGF. By midseason, I moved Spencer to FB where he found a home (his father and uncle were FBs for Mumm back in the day). Once he settled in there and Bridger became more comfortable with the gun triple option, our offense found an identity and we went on a run. Spencer dominated Morris in the playoffs, and our defense did a great job (it didn’t hurt that their starting QB was out with a concussion). Then, against Minnewaska, Bridger and Spencer again sparked us on offense, and we outscored them in a shootout (again, it didn’t hurt that one of their top RBs was out with an ankle injury). Then we ran into the juggernaut that is DGF in the Fargo Dome. We had an early lead, 12-7, but couldn’t handle their power running game and got crushed. We are hoping that this year, we pick up where we left off and can be more of a threat with Spencer running the ball out of the gun. Our defense was great at forcing turnovers last year, and if we can get some more of those, I hope we can make a deep run again.”
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