The 2024-2025 winter sports season has started with some serious ‘deja vu’ in regards to the boys and girls basketball at the Division AA level of play. The Magicians and the Majettes started the year as preseason AA top ranked teams and after a week of play, are undefeated and still atop the rankings.

For the Majettes, the team returns many of the star players from the 2023-2024 season. Leelee Bell, Maggie Fricke, Karew Lamoureux and Eve Knutson were each solid contributors last season and are back for this season.

For the Magicians, the team has fewer starting players back. Aric Winczewski, Payton Schell and Grayson Schaeffer each had significant statistical contributions during the 2023-2024 season, but several players are now finding more game time and larger roles on the 2024-2025 team.

Fischer Johnson, Cale Workman and others have stepped up in the first pair of games to lend depth to the roster.

Across town, the Minot North Sentinels have less history. In fact, the boys and girls at Minot North are in their history making ‘first season’ of varsity play in most all sports. The girls have started the season with one road loss and one home loss and are still looking for their historical first varsity win.

The boys host the Braves from Turtle Mountain Community High School on Friday, December 13, in pursuit of that historical first win to begin their inaugural varsity season.

Both Minot High and Minot North have several games that were non-conference games for the start of the new season. By the new year, the schedule dives deeper into the Western Dakota Association (WDA) meat of the schedule and will give a clearer picture of where each of the four teams is.