The end-of-the-year accolades have begun to pour in for Whatcom’s players and coaches and our state champions lead the Class 2A and 1A awards.
Payton Mills of the 2A state champion Lynden Lions was named to the Washington girls roster for the annual Northwest Shootout featuring the top seniors from our state against the top seniors from Oregon. The boys and girls games will take place April 12 at Portland Community College.
Be sure to check out the Whatcom Hoops coverage of the John Clark Whatcom County Seniors Classic featuring the top seniors in boys and girls all-star games at Lynden High.
Mills, Ella Fritts of Lynden Christian, and Ailina Rabang were honored by the Washington State Girls Basketball Coaches Association at its Senior All-State Games played Saturday, March 14.
Mills was named the 2A state player of the year, Fritts was named the 1A player of the year, and Rabang was named the 1B player of the year. Rob Adams of Lynden also was named the 2A coach of the year.
Others honored were 4A player Brooklyn Hayward (Union) and coach Katie Hyppa (Sumner), 3A Olivia Edwards (Lincoln) and coach Darnelia Russell (Eastside Catholic), 1A coach Joel Yellow Owl (Zillah), 2B Hayden Kaut (Napavine) and coach Vince Glondo (Cle Elum), and 1B coach Cherish Moss-Shaw (Neah Bay).
Kaleo Anderson of King’s was named Ms. Basketball for the state and Matt Strophy of Moses Lake was the John Wooden Legacy Award winner.
In the WSGBCA all-state games, Mills had 15 points, three 3-pointers, and 6 rebounds; Fritts had 16 points and 4 rebounds; and Nooksack Valley’s Grace DeHoog had 4 points and 11 rebounds in the 2A’s 113-85 victory over the 1A. Rabang had 15 points, three 3-pointers, and 6 rebounds in the 2B’s 89-60 victory over the 1B.
The Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association also announced its boys players and coaches of the year and Tim Zylstra, who guided Lynden Christian to the state title, was named the Class 1A coach of the year.
State champion Lummi Nation also was honored twice. Jerome Toby Jr. was named the Class 1B player of the year and Jerome Toby Sr. was named the coach of the year. For a complete list of awards, click on WIBCA Awards.
For more awards for our Whatcom County players and coaches, click on 1B All-State and All-League.
The WIBCA also will have an all-star weekend for boys on Saturday, March 21, at Bellevue Community College with a unified game (10 a.m.), a futures game (11 a.m.), and all-star games featuring 1B vs. 2B (12:30 p.m.), 1A vs. 2A (2 p.m.), and 3A vs. 4A (3:30 p.m.).
Chosen to play were Toby and senior Chayce Waite-Kellar of Lummi Nation (Class 1B), and senior Spencer Adams of Lynden (2A).
VarsityWA, a website for Washington prep sports, named its all-state teams and included three Whatcom boys, three girls, and two coaches.
Lynden Christian juniors Dawson Hintz and Gunnar Dykstra were named to the Class 1A boys first team and Zylstra was named the coach of the year. Toby was named the 1B player of the year. For the complete list for all classifications, click on VarsityWA All-State Boys.
Lynden junior Finley Parcher was named to the girls all-classification first team and was named the Class 2A player of the year for the second straight season. Teammate Mills was named to the 2A first team and Lynden’s Rob Adams was named the 2A coach of the year.
Named to the 1A girls first team was Fritts of Lynden Christian. For the complete list for all classifications, click on VarsityWA All-State Girls.
For those who might have missed the state all-tournament teams chosen by the media, Parcher was named the 2A girls MVP and Mills was named to the second team; Hintz was named the 1A boys MVP and Dykstra was also named to the first team and LC’s Kaden Veldman was named to the second team; and Tyra Dykstra of Lynden Christian was named to the 1A girls first team.
The Eli Sports Network, a high school sports website, also chose its all-tournament teams and several Whatcom players and coaches were honored.
Parcher was named the MVP, Mills was named to the second team, and Adams earned the championship coach award for leading the Lynden girls to their third straight 2A state title. Tyra Dykstra was again named to the 1A girls first team after helping Lynden Christian take fifth place.
For the 1A boys, Veldman earned MVP honors and was joined by Hintz and Gunnar Dykstra on the first team. Zylstra received the championship coach award for leading the Lyncs to their third championship in the past five years.
For the complete list of Eli Sports Network awards click on 2A/1A All-State and 1B All-State.
