Full Pre-Season KBCA Basketball Rankings -- click here

The high school basketball season commences this week in the State of Kansas and the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association has released its initial set of rankings as the season starts up.

Sixteen area teams will start the season ranked from the area out of the Big Seven, Twin Valley and Northeast Kansas League's in the Classes of 4A-DII, 3A, 2A, 1A-DI and 1A-DII.

In Class 4A-Division II a trio of Big Seven League teams start the season ranked as the Holton Wildcat boys and girls start the year ranked, along with the Royal Panther girls, too. Holton boys who finished 17-8 last year making the State tournament will start the year ranked fourth, while the Holton girls who finished 17-6 starts the year and taking third at State, start the season ranked seventh. The Royal Valley girls finished just 11-11 last year and will start the season ranked 10th.

Class 3A is highlighted to start the season in the KBCA rankings by the Nemaha Central Thunder, who’s both girls and boys teams check in, in the pre-season rankings. The lady Thunder will start the season ranked fourth in the polls, as Nemaha Valley who finished 21-5 and third at State in 3A last year merge's with Baileyville-B&B who finished 24-3 last year and won the 1A-DII State title. The boys squad for Nemaha Central starts the year ranked fifth and also merges two programs who experienced success last as the Nemaha Valley boys finished 23-3 and took third in 3A at State and the B&B boys finished 19-8 and third in 1A-DII.

Just like 4A-DII and 3A, Class 2A has an area school with both their girls and boys teams ranked in the Pre-season polls, that being the Washington County Tigers. Both Tiger teams are coming off a trip to the State tournament last year the lady Tigers finished third in 2A last year with a 22-3 record and start the season ranked second. While the boys’ team starts the year ranked eighth after a 14-9 mark last year and a trip to State. One other area team starts the year ranked as the Jefferson County North lady Chargers come in at tenth in the pre-season polls, after finishing second at State last year with a 25-1 record.

Class 1A-Division I is stacked with area teams in the pre-season ranks with seven of the 16 area teams ranked checking in, in the polls in Class 1A-DI. Three Twin Valley League schools account for six of those seven teams as Hanover, Valley Heights and Centralia have both their boys and girls teams each ranked to start the season. The Hanover Wildcat boys start the season ranked the highest of those teams coming in as pre-season number one, after finishing 19-4 last year, while the lady Wildcats will start the season ranked eighth after a 12-11 season last year. The Centralia Panther boys come in at fourth to start the year after a 17-7 record last year and the lady Panthers finished 13-10 last year and start the season ranked fifth. Valley Heights girls and boys are both coming off banner years in which they finished 24-2 and State runner-up and 23-3 and third place at State, respectively. The Mustang gals start this year ranked second in the polls and the boys start the year ranked fifth.

One other area team finds themselves in the 1A-DI rankings checking in at ninth in the girls rankings are the Immaculata Raiders out of the Northeast Kansas League, after finishing just 7-13 last year.

The last three years in Class 1A-DII a State championship has been captured by an area team but this season to start the year only one area team will start the season ranked. The Axtell Eagle boys after a 14-10 season last year start this season at tenth in the 1A-DII polls.

The high school basketball season starts Thursday for some teams and gets going in full gear on Friday, December 5th; make sure to stay tuned to MSCSports.net and 103.9 KNZA, 92.1 KMZA and KAIR 93.7 radio for action with more coverage on the Holton, Sabetha and KAIR TV Channels online, too.