With about a month to go in Central Section basektball, here are The Bee Player of the Year candidates in boys/girls basketball. And, remember, this excludes Kern County. By order of favorites:
BOYS
- Grant Verhoeven, sr., Central Valley Christian (rebounding the ball in photo at right): His 4-year body of work, complete game and ticket to Stanford are difficult to beat.
- Alex Fertig, sr., Buchanan: Leading scorer in school history and another phenomenal 4-year performer. Could threaten if Bears win it all in D-I.
- Robert Upshaw, sr., Memorial: Rising by the day, if that's possible for a 7-footer. Leading home-court win over now-No. 1 Bullard was huge. I mean, who wouldn't start their team with this guy?
- William Stallworth, sr., Tulare: Hard to ignore teammate Keonta Vernon -- a junior beast inside -- but Redskins HAVE to have Stallworth running the floor and his 21.2 points, 5.7 assists, 7.4 rebounds and 3.2 steals.
- Aaric Armstead, sr., Bullard: Collapse at Memorial hurt, but -- bottom line -- he's still the best player on the section's best team and a dominant stretch run through Selland would elevate his stock immensely.
GIRLS
- Bayli McClard, jr., Hanford: From Madison Parrish to McClard, nothing's changed in Central Section girls basketball -- clearly, the Bullpups have the elite team and the elite player. McClard and her marvelous inside-out game (17.3 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.4 steals, 2.7 assists) at 6-feet-1 make her the landslide POY choice at this point.
- Deshayla Johnson, soph., Western: Easy to get lost in Tulare County -- especially so young -- but there's not a coach in the section unaware of this gifted guard and her 25.1 points, 5.9 assists, 6.0 steals, 3.7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks.
- Alexandria Orlich, sr., Clovis West: Not a girls player in the section has more floor savvy than the four-year guard, who has an otherwise extremely young Golden Eagles team knocking for another Tri-River Athletic Conference title.
- Tiana Maxwell, sr., Central: This is a family thing, considering dad (DeAndre Maxwell) was The Bee's boys Player of the Year in basketball at Bullard in 1991. The daughter is on pace to take a school-record, four-year career point total of more than 1,800 to Humboldt State.
- Brittany Sims, jr., Edison: The 6-1 post player can run the floor like a guard and is developing into a major college prospect for a Tigers team pressing for a 12th straight County/Metro Athletic Conference championship and a top five seed in D-I.
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