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Blackjacks bank on 3 returning starters for improvement
D-B junior Hayley Anderson, right, tries to rip the ball away from LQPV’s Ayanna Gipson during a Section 3A-North quarterfinal game on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023 at Montevideo. Joe Brown / West Central Tribune
Allison Estling, Ayiana Hastad and Hayley Anderson lead the way for Dawson-Boyd
BY MICHAEL LYNE | West Central Tribune
DAWSON — The Dawson-Boyd girls basketball team will lean heavily on its three returning starters for its 2023-24 campaign after it lost its top scorer and one of its top defensive players from the 2022-23 season.
Dawson-Boyd had a 6-13 record in Camden Conference action and was 9-19 overall last season. The Blackjacks lost to Lac qui Parle Valley in the Section 3A-North quarterfinals.
“Three of our seniors — Allison Estling, Ayiana Hastad and Hayley Anderson — are returning starters who have played many minutes for us and we will look to them to, once again, lead the team,” said Blackjacks head coach Rachel Hakanson, who enters her third season and will be assisted by Terry White. “I am looking forward to seeing who else will step up and fill the shoes of our former seniors.”
Estling, a 5-foot-5-inch guard and captain, averaged 8.6 points. Hastad, a 5-8 guard and captain, averaged 7.4 points per game. Anderson, a 6-0 forward, averaged 7.2 points per game.
No other players averaged more than five points per game outside of Kate Dahl, who led the Blackjacks with 11.4 points per game as a senior forward. Dawson-Boyd will also be without Chelsie Husby — one of its top defenders from last season — who graduated.
Estling, Hastad and Anderson make up just half of Dawson-Boyd’s senior class.
Also in that group is 5-9 forward Taylen Jorgenson, 5-5 guard Paige Conover and 5-5 guard Rachel Jorgens.
The remaining five athletes on the Blackjacks’ roster features one upperclassmen and four underclassmen.
Lindsey Lund, a 5-7 forward, is the sole junior on the roster.
The underclassmen are as follows: sophomores Alyssa Swedzinski (5-5 guard) and Jordin Strand (5-3 guard); freshman Alivia Estling (5-10 forward); and eighth-grader Claire Stratmoen (5-2 guard).
“I am hopeful that we will have a deeper bench this year with a good mixture of older and younger players,” Hakanson said.
