The Gopher Conference is shaping up to be a little more competitive this season for girls’ basketball than many anticipated at the start of the season.

Sure there is Blooming Prairie and No. 8-ranked New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva — the presumptive favorites — but the conference is being shaped by a strong cast of young players trying to make an impact this season.

United South Central and Waterville-Elysian-Morristown are all in the mix for the conference with one loss each and have a good balance of youth and experience, which are making both teams surprise contenders.

NRHEG, coming off a 16-11 season with every starter back, is leading the conference with a 5-0 record and an 11-0 overall record, but then there are three teams with one loss, including the Buccaneers, the Rebels and the Awesome Blossoms.

“Certainly I feel that this year more than most there is parity,” said Blooming Prairie head coach John Worke, whose team had a 22-win season last year. “Some of these teams are having nice young players contributing. We’re almost four-deep now.”

Worke’s team is senior-dominated, but he feels there are a number of teams on the rise with players just starting to find themselves on the court.

“The whole thing is based on youth and we have some good young players in the conference,” Worke said.

Helping make the conference more competitive this season is the bevy of talented sophomores. The list of young players is long. Four sophomores rank in the top 10 in scoring in the conference.

At the top is a pair of sophomores from NRHEG. Alyssa Kerkhoff and Kristina Cole are the Panthers’ leading scorers this season with Kerkhoff averaging 24.8 points a game in conference play and Cole averaging 17.7 a game to lead the Gopher.

Kerkhoff’s game is largely based on her aggression on the defensive side of the ball. She averages five steals a game and converts many of those into easy buckets, but she’s become a much more dangerous player this season with her perimeter and 3-point shooting.

“For her to do this well is awesome,” said NRHEG head coach Mindy Sparby. “She’s worked so hard during the offseason. As far as her whole game, she’s worked to make it more complete.”

Cole’s efforts can be overshadowed by that of others on a deep Panther squad, but Sparby says she is one of the best pure shooters on the squad.

“She’s just one our best pure shooters,” Sparby said. “She can knock down the 3, she can start at the high post and take it to the hoop.”

Last season it was clear NRHEG and Blooming Prairie were unquestionably the top teams in the conference. The Blossoms had just one conference loss last season, which came against the Panthers in overtime.

Already the two teams turned in one of the best games of the season, a double overtime thriller where NRHEG came through with a 63-58 win.

Val Sahr, of USC, has helped put the Rebels among the top in the Gopher this season with her impressive year. Sahr, an all-conference selection as a freshman, has put together a strong sophomore season. Sahr, who is 5-foot-10, is averaging a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds this season. She has five double-doubles in 12 games this season and currently ranks fifth in scoring in conference games with 13.5 points per game.

USC has already exceeded last year’s win total this season with its 8-4 record and 5-1 conference standing. Last season the Rebels finished 7-19.

Early in the season USC had different players having big games nearly every night.

Kayla Stenzel, a 6-foot sophomore, has provided a boost this season as well. Stenzel recorded a double-double in her third varsity game and has been a strong presence inside throughout the season.

USC played a competitive game with Blooming Prairie last Friday, only to lose by seven points.

USC is off to a hot start, but its schedule gets much more difficult in February when the Rebels will meet NRHEG and W-E-M in the same week, Blooming Prairie a week later and then the Buccaneers once again to close out the regular season.

W-E-M has also been a surprise this season in the Gopher as some of its players have started to mature on the court.

Amanda Barton, a 6-foot-2 junior is third in the league in scoring with 17.4 points per game. The Bucs are off to a 9-3 start and a 5-1 conference record.

W-E-M has five players 5-foot-10 or taller, but it’s the perimeter play of the Bucs that has fueled their early success.

“They were always missing the outside presence and they are getting that this year,” Worke said.

Kylie Dorenkemper, a sophomore point guard, has helped provide that outside presence this season. Dorenkemper is averaging 7.5 points a game in conference games this season.

“It’s a new year for her,” said W-E-M head coach Linda Coleman. “She only played two or three varsity games last season. I think she’s learning very quickly.”

The Bucs lost 67-51 to the Panthers Tuesday, but gave NRHEG a run early on as they jumped out to an 11-0 run.

“The competition out there is stiff,” Sparby said. “We know that there are good players out there. It just seems like there is talent across the board.”

Blooming Prairie, despite its loss to NRHEG, still figures into the conference championship picture. With six seniors the Awesome Blossoms are the most experienced team in the conference, but that has its own set of challenges with every other team out to prove itself.

“I’m in a little different situation,” Worke said. “A lot of these teams are starting their run. My challenge is to get these kids to understand the excitement the other kids have, they need to continue to find the motivation. These young kids have a lot to prove. We need to look to other places for our motivation. “

While it’s not unusual to see underclassmen perform well in girls’ sports, it is interesting to see the dearth of talent in the sophomore class this season in the Gopher.

“I think younger is a little more noticeable because girls mature quicker,” Worke said. “The challenge for these girls is going to be to improve every year in high school.”

Worke’s group of seniors got their start on varsity as sophomores and freshmen and act as a model for other teams in the league.

Even Bethlehem Academy, a 3-9 team, has a number of youngsters trying to make their mark in the conference. Cardinals head coach Melissa Hager has six seniors, but has mixed in a cast of sophomores throughout the season. Hager says she has often played four sophomores on the court at one time.

Jena Budde is one of the Bethlehem Academy sophomores and she ranks seventh in conference scoring with 9.8 points per game.

However the conference shakes out this season, it appears it will remain ultra-competitive for the next few years.