The end-of-the-year awards and accolades have begun to pour in for Whatcom’s best boys and girls basketball players and coaches.
The Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association announced its boys basketball awards and Brant Heppner of Lynden was named the Class 2A player of year and Jerome Toby Sr. of state champion Lummi Nation was named the Class 1B coach of the year.
Jaylen Petty of Rainier Beach was chosen as the state’s Mr. Basketball. The other players of the year were Josiah Lee of Glacier Peak (4A), Kaden Powers of Rainier Beach (3A), Jeremiah Harshman of Annie Wright (1A), Quincy Scott of Columbia-Burbank (2B), and Franky Wynne of Wellpinit (1B).
Five Whatcom seniors also were selected to play in the WIBCA All-State games on Saturday, March 22, at Bellevue Community College.
Nooksack Valley’s Caden Heutink, Lynden Christian’s Gannon Dykstra, and Meridian’s Talon Jenkins and Jaeger Fyfe were named to the Class 1A team, and Heppner was named to the Class 2A team.
The day tips off with a Unified Game at 10 a.m., a Futures Game featuring underclassmen at 11 a.m. and followed by the Class 1B vs. 2B game at 12:30 p.m., the 1A vs. 2A game at 2 p.m., and the 3A vs. 4A game at 3:30 p.m.
For the complete roster, check out WIBCA rosters.
The WIAA honors several athletes each week and for Week 26 (March 3-8), sophomore Finley Parcher of the 2A state champion Lynden girls and junior Jerome Toby Jr. of Lummi Nation were chosen.
For those who might have missed the state all-tournament teams, Heppner was chosen on the 2A first team; Dykstra and LC sophomore Dawson Hintz were chosen to the 1A first team, and Fyfe and Jenkins were chosen to the second team; and Toby was chosen the MVP of the 1B tournament.
For the girls state all-tournament teams, Parcher was named the 2A MVP and was joined on the first team by Lynden junior Payton Mills. Lynden Christian seniors Allison Shumate and Danya Dykstra were named to the 1A second team.
