2026 Commitments

Player	High School	Height	Position	College
Mylo Albrecht	Northland Pines	6'3"	Wing	Concordia-Wisconsin (D3)
Calvin Anderson	Superior	6'5"	Wing	Minnesota-Duluth (D2)
Isaac Asmus	Aitkin	6'8"	Forward	UW-Superior (D3)
Jatyn Barkus	Rhinelander	6'3"	Wing	Ripon (D3)
Xander Beeksma	Mellen	6'3"	Wing	Gogebic (NJCAA D2)
Jaxon Boschee	Bemidji	6'3"	Guard	Bemidji State (D2)
Lee Brooks	Duluth Denfeld	5'10"	Guard	Madison CC (NJCAA D2)
Antonio Brown	Duluth Denfeld	6'5"	Forward	Mesabi Range CC (NJCAA D3)
Tyler Eklund	Braham	5'11"	Guard	Bethel (D3)
Devon Feck	Rhinelander	6'2"	Guard	Ripon (D3)
Connor Fierstine	Marquette	6'4"	Forward	Alma (D3)
Parker Gleason	Ishpeming	5'11"	Guard	Itasca CC (NJCAA D3)
Garrett Guida	McGregor	6'5"	Wing	Central Lakes CC (NJCAA D3)
Jed Henderson	Rib Lake	6'5"	Forward	Crown (D3)
Brock Hurst	Barnum	6'7"	Forward	UW-Superior (D3)
Evan Lord	Prentice	6'3"	Wing	Madison College (NJCAA D2)
Ethan Marta	Westwood	6'3"	Guard	Michigan Tech (D2)
Stephen McGee	Greenway	6'9"	Forward	Northern Michigan (D2)
Warren McLouden	Nashwauk-Keewatin	6'2"	Wing	Hibbing (NJCAA D3)
Cooper Michalski	Chequamegon	6'4"	Wing	UW-River Falls (D3)
Nick Miskovish	Ironwood	6'4"	Wing/Forward	Northland Tech (NJCAA D3)
Owen Olkkonen	Kingsford	6'3"	Wing	Ripon (D3)
Austin Riewer	Bemidji	6'7"	Forward	Bemidji State (D2)
Keagan Wright	Rock Ridge	5'10"	Guard	Mesabi Range (NJCAA D3)

Five Takeaways - Ashland High School Summer League (2025)

After watching a couple of nights of the 2025 Ashland High School Summer League, I've come to the following five conclusions/thoughts:

1) Mellen was the most impressive Northern Lights Conference team competing in the summer league. No real surprise hearing this considering they won the conference titles in 2025 and return the conference POY in Xander Beeksma. Returning All-Northern Lights Honorable Mention selections in Bryce Maier and Hayden Lawver should help make the Granite Diggers a team to beat in the upcoming season. The first game I watched them play in summer league they lost to Division 3 Ashland by 1 point in overtime. They have a bunch of very good athletes and don't get rattled by a ton of different tempos being thrown at them. Add in some younger talent, and that should free some things up for the names listed above. Hurley wasn't in the summer league, but they should be the top competitor for Mellen.

2) Chequamegon senior, Cooper Michalski, looks like he is one of the best seniors in Northern Wisconsin. The Screaming Eagles aren't exactly known as a basketball powerhouse, but they tend to have a player every couple of years who can play. Cooper excels with his athleticism, but has really improved his jump shot over the last couple of years. Measured at 6'4", he makes himself an one-on-one matchup nightmare, especially after he led the conference in scoring as a junior at 23.0 points per game. With help from other seniors (Jarrett Heckendorf, Marcus Purdy, and Ian Schloer) Chequamegon should be able to improve last years win total of three, but they will need to be locked in. The Marawood-North Conference has a really deep senior class, so there will be a lot of good battles.

3) Ashland is probably a year away from being really competitive. They should show signs of improvement this season, but it appears their best talent is in their sophomore and junior classes. Gavin Greene (HM All-Heart O' North) should become more of a focal point this season and the 6'5" junior had some really good games this summer on the AAU circuit. If he can start to dominate games (not just scoring) on a consistent basis, the Oredockers could become a tough out over the next two seasons. Potentially their biggest concern is going to be a lack of height, but I expect that the toughness is going to be there from them. The Heart O' North was a very senior dominated conference last season, this could be a year where you see a little more shake up in the standings.

4) It will be interesting to see improvements from Hayward in year two of the up-tempo style of play. They looked more settled in with it during summer league, but that's always tough to know what you are going against. Picking up the tempo usually takes time for younger athletes to figure out and not drown in choice. Last season they scored the 5th amount of points (69.75 offensive points per game), but also allowed the 2nd most points (78.67 defensive points per game) in the Northwoods. If they can shrink that gap, or flip those numbers, I'd assume they will be on an upward trajectory. Senior Lucas Hansen (2nd-Team All-Heart O' North) and sophomore Adel Amparo should help the team stay on course.

5) Aaron Christenson from Drummond will be a junior to keep an eye on. I'll be excited to see how he does following a sophomore season where he was a 1st-Team All-Northern Lights Conference selection. He did a little bit of everything during summer league, and was a big reason why Drummond won/was competitive. The 6'1" guard made a lot of tough threes, got to the hoop well, and rebounded the ball at a high rate (especially offensively). My thoughts when recruiting players from small high schools was they needed to fit three criteria: 1) score/make your teammates better, 2) you should be getting a lot of rebounds, and 3) defend at a high rate/guard the other teams best player. Christenson appears to be a tough enough player that he could do all of those things by the end of his high school career.

The Northwoods Top 2027 Players 1.0

The Top 20 2027 Players in the Northwoods, listed alphabetically. Making the list is based on statistics, team success, college projections, among other things. This list will be updated throughout the year. There might be players that aren't included now, that could play their way onto the list. By the summer of 2026, this list will expand from 20 players to 25 players.

Jack Albrecht (Northland Pines)

Caleb Arcand (Clear Lake)

Isaiah Asuma (Cherry)

Jack Bottoms (Hibbing)

Ray Brau (Hibbing)

Carter Brown (Duluth Denfeld)

Canton Chrisman (Wabeno/Laona)

Aaron Christenson (Drummond)

Lonnie Davey (Gladstone)

DaJuan Edstrom (Mesabi East)

Vic Giuliani (Crystal Falls Forest Park)

Gavin Greene (Ashland)

Abe Gretzinger (Rhinelander)

Dax Hukki (Crystal Falls Forest Park)

Kam Kroll (Northwestern)

Soren Lilly (Braham)

Brayden Reinke (Mosinee)

Caleb Rombach (Grantsburg)

Sawyer Senst (Hermantown)

Kyle Waterman (Negaunee)

The Northwoods Top 2026 Players 1.0

The Top 25 2026 Players in the Northwoods, listed alphabetically. Making the list is based on statistics, team success, college projections, among other things. This list will be updated throughout the year. There might be players that aren't included now, that could play their way onto the list.

Mylo Albrecht (Northland Pines)

Calvin Anderson (Superior)

Isaac Asmus (Aitkin)

Noah Asuma (Cherry)

Xander Beeksma (Mellen)

AJ Bessler (Nevis)

Jaxon Boschee (Bemidji)

Ben Carlin (East Central)

Drew Eisel (Superior)

Tyler Eklund (Braham)

Brody Graetz (River Falls)

JJ Heikkinen (Phillips)

Jed Henderson (Rib Lake)

Lance Janson (Hermantown)

Ethan Marta (Westwood)

Stephan McGee (Greenway)

Cooper Michalski (Chequamegon)

Ty Nyberg (Duluth East)

Austin Riewer (Bemidji)

JT Schlaefer (Assumption)

Treve Stoffel (Mosinee)

Joey Sutherland (Grand Rapids)

Tanner Theuerkauf (Menominee)

Brandon Wagner (Turtle Lake)

Quinn Widiker (Webster)

Ashland High School Summer League 2025

Hosted at Ashland High School Fieldhouse

Tuesday, July 1

6:00pm (Court 1) - Bayfield White vs. Hayward Black

6:00pm (Court 2) - Bayfield Red vs. Hayward Gold

6:00pm (Court 3) - Drummond vs. Washburn

6:00pm (Court 4) - Chequamegon vs. Ashland White

7:00pm (Court 1) - Bayfield White vs. Hayward Gold

7:00pm (Court 2) - Bayfield Red vs. Washburn

7:00pm (Court 3) - Mellen vs. Ashland Purple

7:00pm (Court 4) - Chequamegon vs. Hayward Black

8:00pm (Court 1) - Drummond vs. Ashland Purple

8:00pm (Court 3) - Mellen vs. Ashland White

Tuesday, July 8

6:00pm (Court 1) - Mellen vs. Chequamegon

6:00pm (Court 2) - Bayfield Red vs. Drummond

6:00pm (Court 3) - Bayfield White vs. Washburn

6:00pm (Court 4) - Hayward Black vs. Ashland Purple

7:00pm (Court 1) - Mellen vs. Bayfield White

7:00pm (Court 2) - Bayfield Red vs. Ashland Purple

7:00pm (Court 3) - Drummond vs. Chequamegon

7:00pm (Court 4) - Hayward Gold vs. Ashland White

8:00pm (Court 1) - Hayward Black vs. Ashland White

8:00pm (Court 4) - Hayward Gold vs. Washburn

Tuesday, July 15

6:00pm (Court 1) - Hayward Black vs. Bayfield Red

6:00pm (Court 2) - Hayward Gold vs. Drummond

6:00pm (Court 3) - Drummond vs. Winter

6:00pm (Court 4) - Chequamegon vs. Ashland Purple

7:00pm (Court 1) - Hayward Black vs. Drummond

7:00pm (Court 2) - Hayward Gold vs. Mellen

7:00pm (Court 3) - Drummond vs. Chequamegon

7:00pm (Court 4) - Bayfield White vs. Ashland White

8:00pm (Court 1) - Bayfield Red vs. Ashland White

8:00pm (Court 4) - Bayfield White vs. Ashland Purple

Thursday, July 17

6:00pm (Court 1) - Bayfield White vs. Drummond

6:00pm (Court 2) - Bayfield Red vs. Chequamegon

6:00pm (Court 3) - Mellen vs. Hayward Black

6:00pm (Court 4) - Hayward Gold vs. Ashland Purple

7:00pm (Court 1) - Hayward Black vs. Washburn

7:00pm (Court 2) - Bayfield White vs. Chequamegon

7:00pm (Court 3) - Mellen vs. Bayfield Red

7:00pm (Court 4) - Ashland White vs. Drummond

8:00pm (Court 1) - Ashland Purple vs. Washburn

8:00pm (Court 4) - Ashland White vs. Hayward Gold

Northern Wisconsin Top 10 All-Time Leading Scorers

Rank	Player	High School	Total Points
1	Gavin Gores	Cumberland ('25)	2,360
2	Henry Ellenson	Rice Lake ('15)	2,295
3	Eli Talsma	Hurley ('23)	2,130
4	Matthew Marcinske	Birchwood ('20)	2,129
5	Andy Roeder	Mercer ('99)	2,103
6	Davin Stricker	Mellen ('17)	2,076
7	Scott Anderson	Auburndale ('85)	1,977
8	Connor Taylor	Wabeno-Laona ('22)	1,929
9	Jared Schultz	Northwood ('25)	1,929
10	Quintin Bressette	Bayfield ('25)	1,918

24-25 College Transfers

Player	High School	Transfer From	Transfer To	Grad Year
Dillon Bement	Duluth East	Northland	TBD	2023
Will Boser	Eau Claire Memorial	Concordia-St. Paul	UW-Eau Claire	2022
CJ Campbell	New Richmond	UW-La Crosse	Lawrence	2022
Ryan Ehlert	Goodman-Pembine	Northland	TBD	2024
Ayden McDonald	Hibbing	UW-Superior	North Central (MN)	2022
Ian McFaggen	Webster	Northland	Crown	2024
Tyler Orr	Rice Lake	Winona State	UW-Stevens Point	2023
Grant Paetzold	Cameron	UW-Eau Claire	Dubuque	2023
Bradyn Pieper	Merrill	Gogebic CC	Blackburn	2023
Finnley Powell	Duluth Denfeld	Northland	TBD	2024
Eli Rogers	Ladysmith	Dubuque	Bethany Lutheran	2023
Peyton Rogers-Schmidt	Chippewa Falls	Houston Christian	Minnesota-Duluth	2020
Tre Sanigar	Superior	Bay CC	UW-Whitewater	2024
JT Schradle	Rice Lake	Bethel	TBD	2024
Foster Wonders	Iron Mountain	UW-Green Bay	Cleveland State	2021