For the third time in his career, Ellendale's Scott Wagner has found himself on the Class B boys basketball All-State teams.
This is Wagner’s first, first team selection after spending his first three seasons on the second team. It is the seventh time since 2010 that an Ellendale Cardinal has been selected to one of the all state teams and eighth time in school history.
Cardinals head coach Brian Vance has coached all seven of the school’s all-state selections since 2010. Vance said one of the reasons they were selected was because of their hard work.
The Cardinals’ big man helped lead his team to a 22-3 record, a Stutsman County Tournament title and got his team to as high as No. 3 in the polls. In his team’s 75-52 win over Medina/Pingree-Buchanan in the region 3 tournament, Wagner scored a school record 41 points.
He averaged 19.5 points per game, 11.3 rebounds per game, 3.2 blocks and 1.2 assists per game. Wagner has permanently imprinted his name in the Cardinals record books as he owns all of the rebounding records, is the leading shot blocker in a season and a career and has the highest field goal percentage in a season. He is also second for most points in a career in program history.
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Wagner bounced back this season from a potentially career-ending car crash in the summer of 2021, when he broke his left clavicle, his left wrist and thumb and two vertebrae.
“It just shows how hard he worked to get back,” Vance said. “We were not sure if he would be able to play and at what level.”
Over the last four years, Vance said Wagner has grown into his game and his body a lot.
“Number wise they’ve been pretty consistent all the way,” Vance said. “He sees the floor better, he moves better, he’s a heck of a lot stronger than when he first started with us as a freshman. You don’t knock the kid over, he’s a beast down low, he’s shown a tremendous amount of growth that way.”
As Wagner hopes to play at the collegiate level, Vance is excited to see his growth continue.
“He really wants to play at that next level,” Vance said. “Hopefully somebody will pick him up, he hasn’t signed with anybody yet but I think whoever he signs with they are going to get a gem and a team guy. He’s going to work his tail off, I know that, and try to contribute at that next level.”
The full teams are below:
First team:
Joe Hurlburt, Enderlin
Jayden Yankton, Four Winds-Minnewaukan
Trey Brandt, Beulah
Tyson Enget, Powers Lake
Scott Wagner, Ellendale
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Second team:
Deng Deng, Four Winds-Minnewaukan
Bohden Duffield, Bowman County
Carter Englund, Shiloh Christian
Jace Friesz, Flasher
Zach Hendrickson, Our Redeemer's
Gus Hurlburt, Enderlin
Will Jiskra, Grafton
Gannon Linke, Hillsboro-Central Valley
Paul Olson, Kindred
Ayden Stainbrook, North Border
