Veteran group leads YME Sting boys

Sting will be led by seniors Sneller, Dahlager and LaRose

BY MICHAEL LYNE | West Central Tribune

GRANITE FALLS — Yellow Medicine East returns a veteran group with some new faces that aims to improve upon last season’s 4-20 record.

“This year we have a good mix of veterans (who) have been around our varsity for a long time and young new faces,” said Logan DeBlieck, who enters his second season as head coach. “We think our junior class meshes really well with our large senior class.”

Leading YME’s mix are returning senior starters center Bryce Sneller, guard Cody Dahlager and forward Archie LaRose.

Sneller was honored as an AllCamden Conference member and was voted as the Sting’s most valuable player. LaRose was named YME’s rookie of the year.

The Sting are without two key players from 2021-22 in Isaac Jimenez and Nikson Knapper. But, DeBlieck is optimistic that three players — senior Owen Torvik and juniors DJ Whitebuffalo and Drew Almich — will step up and make an impact.

YME junior Cody Dahlager (5) hoists up a fall-away jump shot over Dawson-Boyd’s Levi Olson during a Camden Conference game Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022, in Granite Falls.

Joe Brown / West Central Tribune

Torvik returns as a center who came off the bench. He averaged 8.0 points and 4.0 rebounds per game and DeBlieck expects “big things from him this year with some increased minutes.”

Whitebuffalo is a guard who has grown roughly four inches since the 2021-22 season and presents upside. He averaged about 10 points per game on the Sting’s junior varsity team and DeBlieck is hopeful to see “more of the same at the varsity level.”

Almich, listed at 6-foot-3, returns as a sharpshooting, long, athletic guard. Alongside Whitebuffalo, he averaged roughly 10 points per game on YME’s junior varsity team in 2021-22.

“He is going to cause lots of matchup problems,” DeBlieck said. ◀