North Dakota has been on a roll recently on the recruiting trail, trying to add to their 2027 recruiting class. They did just that when they received a commitment from La Crosse (WI) Aquinas High School athlete Brady Lee on April 16.

“I committed because the coaching staff, the school, and the community made it the right fit for me,” Lee said.

He received his first offer from the Fighting Hawks on November 22, when he was in Grand Forks for the South Dakota State game, and met with head coach Eric Schmidt beforehand. Despite the UND setback that day, they made quite the impression on him.

“Coach Schmidt had me meet him on the sideline before their game against South Dakota State, and he basically told me I did everything they asked and then he offered me. The game was great, I loved the energy of the Alerus Center, and I got to watch my former teammate, Shane Willenbring, who plays for SDSU. The coaches made me feel like a priority, even though it was a huge match-up.”

The coaching staff was one of the main reasons he committed, and he was able to catch up with Schmidt and safeties coach Keaton Wilkerson when he made it out to practice on March 28.

“I love Coach Wilk and Coach Schmidt. They have made it clear to me that they are in my corner. When I was there at practice, they and the rest of the staff showed nothing but love for me, and it felt like I was at home.”

Recapping last season

Last season, Lee, who plays safety and wide receiver, was named an All-Region selection by the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association and an All-State Honorable Mention. He helped lead Aquinas to an 11-1 record and made it to the third round of the playoffs.

“The season went well. We had a tough loss at the end of the year, but we went 11-1. I had a slow start to the season, but things really picked up at the end of the year for me.”

That playoff loss still doesn’t sit well with Lee and the rest of the Blugolds, who still have it on their minds.

“The offseason has been very well. My teammates and I have been grinding, no doubt about it. We definitely have unfinished business.”

The recruiting process is a different experience for every prospect, and it certainly was for Lee. In addition to the Fighting Hawks, he also had offers from North Dakota State and South Dakota.

“My recruitment was overwhelming, but it was still a blessing. I had a bunch of visits and some offers, but nowhere felt like North Dakota.”

Lee adds to a North Dakota 2027 class, which is currently rated No. 79 nationally by 247Sports, and includes three-star quarterback Caden Gutzmer, Andrew McGee, Jonah Cummings, Ethan Howey, Carson Wilson, and Marlowe Strain.

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Minnetonka (Minn.) quarterback Caden Gutzmer committed to North Dakota earlier this month.

Gutzmer, a higher three-star on Rivals and the Rivals Industry Ranking, is a significant addition for the Fighting Hawks and chose them over the presence of several other offers. Head coach Eric Schmidt and his staff had much to do with that.

“There are many reasons,” he said. “First being the entire coaching staff is very welcoming, and experienced. And with Coach Schmidt leading the way, the culture there is awesome. I have been to a lot of schools, but based on what I saw with UND, they are building a championship winning team in a strong Missouri Valley Conference. And lastly, the most important thing for me is having an opportunity to play. They really believe in developing players from high school. Could I possibly go to a bigger program, yes. But I don’t want to chase a logo to sit behind kids coming from the portal, you need to opportunity to prove it.”

Gutzmer knows that based on how UND recruits and develops though, that he will have healthy competition within his position group when he gets there.

“We went into depth about the quarterback room and plan,” he said. “Obviously I need to prove myself — everything is earned, and they have a strong quarterback room.”

With his recruitment now behind him, Gutzmer is working towards the ultimate goal for his senior season.

“The biggest focus for me this offseason is to continue to work on my speed and agility, and of course working with my QB coach on everything both physical and mental,” he said. “And get reps with my teammates. Two big goals for the season: stay healthy and win a 6A state championship.”

Gutzmer is ranked by Rivals as the No. 8 junior in Minnesota.

As a junior, he passed for 1,147 yards on 65-of-103 passing for ten touchdowns and zero interceptions.

BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) — North Dakota oil shipped on the Dakota Access Pipeline is fetching nearly $7 more per barrel than a U.S. benchmark price amid volatility caused by the Iran war.

State regulators aren’t sure why prices for North Dakota oil at its destination in Illinois are higher than traditional benchmark prices. One possibility is the light, sweet crude can be more easily refined into products like jet fuel and diesel that are experiencing demand surges in Europe and elsewhere.

How much of that higher price benefits North Dakota will be more clear in the coming months, said Justin Kringstad, director of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority.

“Royalty owners, the producers, the state, all share that uplift,” Kringstad said.

North Dakota crude oil typically is discounted compared to benchmark pricing to account for the cost of transportation. Kringstad and Nathan Anderson, director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources, expect to have more information next month about why the prices have been higher in recent weeks and how much of that value is filtering back to North Dakota.

“I would suspect that some portion of it, probably not all of it for sure, does make its way back,” Anderson said.

The new dynamic is a small part of a global oil market that has been thrown into chaos by the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime bottleneck for a fifth of the world’s oil production.

“Boy, this is largely dominated by the word volatility. That’s the way I would describe pricing over the last 50 days,” Anderson said. “But over the last seven days, I think we’ve had almost a $20 swing in price, depending upon what talks are occurring between the United States and Iran.”

That chaotic market dynamic and the uncertainty of how long the conflict, and subsequently high oil prices, will endure is a big reason why publicly-traded oil companies have not invested in new drilling, Anderson said.

But the number of maintenance rigs has risen from 110 to 125 since last month, suggesting that oil companies are trying to optimize production from existing wells while oil prices remain high, the director said.

There are 26 active drilling rigs in North Dakota, and companies have indicated plans to add one or two more, Anderson said.

Beyond that, Anderson does not expect publicly-traded companies to increase drilling activity until 2027 because their budgets for this year are already set. Privately-owned oil companies have more flexibility and could potentially invest in more drilling than they budgeted for this year if prices remain high enough to warrant it.

There is little data available on what impact the Iran war has had on North Dakota oil production so far because data is not available in real time. February figures, prior to the beginning of the war, were released Tuesday and showed the state produced an average of nearly 1.13 million barrels of oil per day. North Dakota also produced more than 3.32 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.

The daily oil production is 1.76% below the revenue forecast used to guide North Dakota’s budget-making process. But Anderson expects those numbers to increase when March production is announced next month.

“One of the things that occurred when the Iran conflict happened was that those operators that had curtailed or shut in production during the low price environment started to bring that production online,” Anderson said.

North Dakota Monitor reporter Jacob Orledge can be reached at jorledge@northdakotamonitor.com.