SPASH Players Earn Honors
By Ken McKenzie
While the game Friday night against West Allis Central is the top priority right now as the Panthers continue their quest for a state crown at the WIAA State Boys Basketball Tournament, individual efforts on a team have not gone unnoticed by their peers.
Four Panthers have earned 2014-15 Valley All-Conference Boys Basketball Team honors as recently announced with Trev Anderson and Sam Hauser named as Co-Players of the Year. Coach Scott Anderson of SPASH and Kurt Soderberg, Merrill, were named as Co-Coaches of the Year.
Trev Anderson and Sam Hauser were unanimous picks and named to first team all-conference for the second consecutive year and were joined by another repeater, Taylor Penn (Wausau West) and Chaz Mootz (Merrill) and JP Lacy (Wausau East). SPASH freshman Joey Hauser was named to second team all-conference along with Jake Gebert (D.C. Everest), Jayson Wiernik and Riley Presley (Wisconsin Rapids) and Jakob Tordsen (Wausau West).
Earning Honorable Mention status was SPASH senior Andrew Ruzek along with Riley Peterson (D.C. Everest), Adam Fravert (Marshfield), Austin Reissmann and Jake Anderson (Merrill), Ben Schubring (Wausau East) and Alex Bassuener (Wisconsin Rapids).
Trev Anderson was scoring leader in the Wisconsin Valley Conference with 21.8 points per game and also co-leader in assists at 3.1 assists per game with Hauser right behind at 17.2 ppg and 7.3 rebounds per game as second leader. Mootz was top rebounder at 7.5 rebounds, averaged 16.3 ppg and tied at 3.1 assists per game. Joey Hauser added 9.3 ppg and Ruzek had 4.4 rebounds per game with numerous possession extenders on tip-outs.
Always first to honor his players and assistant coaches for their dedication and hard work as SPASH rolled to a perfect, 12-0 conference mark in the regular WVC conference season, Scott Anderson shared the Coach of the Year Award with Kurt Soderberg of Merrill, whose Bluejays finished tied for second place at 7-5.
SPASH takes their 25-1 season mark into Division 1 semi-finals Friday night at 6:35 PM against West Allis Central (14-12) of the Greater Metro Conference with the winner advancing to Saturday’s Championship game against either Germantown (26-0) or Madison East (20-6).
There will be a WIAA State Send-Off for the SPASH boys’ basketball team on Thursday, 1:30 PM in the SPASH Fieldhouse and if the Panthers advance to the championship game, a Welcome Home celebration on Sunday, March 22 at 1 PM, also in the SPASH Fieldhouse.