As you can see above, Derby took home the league title for the second year in a row under second-year coach Brett Flory. He has a good thing running down in Derby and the rest of the division is definitely playing catch-up after the Panthers broke through their post-season struggles and won the 3rd place game at 6A State to post the best finish in school history. But there were many other good seasons, as Salina Central won 14 games, Hutchinson posted a winning record, Maize caught fire late and Salina South made a surprise bid at 5A State. Let's take a look at how the season played out and announce my all-league and specialty awards for Division 1 of the Ark Valley-Chisholm Trail League.
Let's start with my all-league team, which I have ranked in order of my voting.
So there you have it, those are the 15 players that I believe had the best seasons in the league. As you can see below the 3rd team selections, I also have a list of 10 others that I felt deserving to recognize as honorable mention. Now that we got that out of the way, let's get to the specialty awards.
There is little doubt who the best player in the league was this season. Schieber wasn't just the best scorer (19.3 ppg) or one of the most efficient, but his value to Derby was clear. When he wasn't on the court, they struggled, and when he was - well, the Panthers won 3rd place in 6A. You can check his stats above, but my favorite was his True Shooting % (which values FT shooting) of 63.0%, which led the league and is the NBA equivalent to J.J. Redick.
Yes, Flory had the most talented roster to work with in the league, but to navigate through Schieber's injury and come out of it with a 10-1 record was very impressive. Flory is 22-1 against league competition since he took over the Derby program and he's got a very good thing going right now. The rest of the division is playing catch up.
Stonebraker showed signs of breaking out as a sophomore, but he elevated to another level this season. The Cougars struggled in the regular season, but when the games counted, there weren't many players better than Stonebraker. If you add up how much of a share he accounted for his team's points, rebounds, assists and steals, that total is higher than any other player in the league. He led the Cougars to the state tournament and as the only junior on my first team, I think it's clear who my frontrunner for Most Outstanding Player is for next season.
After missing his entire junior basketball season due to an injury in the state championship game in football, Turner rehabbed and came back an even better player this season. Turner was one of team's best players on the team as a sophomore, but he took his game to the next level this season. He shot an impressive 51.4% from the field, considering he took double-digit shots per game. He made 19 three-pointers on 42% shooting and his 14.8 ppg was good for third in the league. Whenever Hutchinson's offense stalled, Turner was the go-to player that almost always got it back running again. Pretty impressive considering he did it all with a bulky knee brace.
I gave consideration to a few on Salina Central and Hutchinson's Braydon Wells, but in the end I choose Ray because he was such a unique commodity in a league dominated by guards. Derby allowed 48.3 points per game in league play, second-best behind the Mustangs, and a big reason for that is because the Panthers had a 6-foot-7 shot-blocking maniac guarding their rim. Ray averaged close to two blocks a game and 1.3 steals, which is what convinced me that Ray was the best defensive presence in the league this season.
Every team needs that added boost when the starters come out. Hunter wasn't just a boost, he was an explosion of points for Derby. He probably would have been starting anywhere else, but Hunter settled in nicely as the 6th man for the Panthers as a senior. He averaged 6.9 points for Derby and connected on 33 three-pointers. Hunter was, without question, the best offensive spark off the bench in the league this season.
While Salina South was considered for its run to the state tournament, I had to go with Chris Davis's job in his first season at Maize. The Eagles weren't far from winning, but did start the season 2-10. Morale was low and it would have been easy for the very inexperienced Eagles to pack it in and collapse. Instead, Davis invigorated the underclassmen and the student body and Maize got a good thing going in February by winning six of its final nine games. With so much coming back next season, look for Maize to sneak up into the mix as a darkhorse contender for the league crown.
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