Before we get to the Outside the Huddle All-Area Team and our end-of-year awards, Bounce wanted to take some time and take a last glance at area conferences and hand out some league-specific hardware.
We opening up with the ACAC boys.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Isaac Schultz, Adams Central
This is a no brainer selection as Schultz was absolutely dominant for the Flying Jets all season, leading them to ACAC regular season and tournament titles while being named the ACAC Tournament MVP for the second straight season. Inside the ACAC and a lot of time outside of it, Schultz had no match.
This is as easy of a pick as I have to make for conference Players of the Year this week. Schultz completely overwhelmed the rest of the ACAC with both his size and ability and has what it takes to be successful on the next level.
HONORABLE MENTION: Trey Yoder (Woodlan), Micah McClure (Adams Central)
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: Micah McClure, Adams Central
If you know Bounce’s awards and OTH history, you know MVP means something different than Player of the Year. MVP to us is someone who is legit the most valuable to their team and overall success of that program.
Few in the area had the ability to alter pace and tempo like McClure did for Adams Central and it is fair to say that nobody in the conference did. At his best, McClure was a tremendous chameleon on the court and adapted to what he needed to be for Adams Central, whether it was as a leader offensively, a defensive stalwart, a facilitator or a scorer as he also set that tempo to be whatever AC needed during any stretch of a game.
You always hear about coaches kids being on a different wavelength and McClure is no different. He understood the assignment every time and helped the Flying Jets thrive.
HONORABLE MENTION: Tucker Jenkins (Bluffton), Kobe Meyer (Heritage), Tytus Lehman (South Adams), Chandler Oswalt (Southern Wells)
BREAKOUT PLAYER: Gradin Swoveland, Jay County
While Jay County went 8-14 overall, their 4-2 mark in the ACAC did place them second in the conference and sophomore Gradin Swoveland took the lead of that effort.
Averaging a team best in all five major statistical categories, the Patriots looked to Swoveland consistently to lead their charge. The 6-foot-7 sophomore averaged 9.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 2.6 steals and 1.1 blocks per game.
Swoveland shot 40 percent from the field and had some big statistical games like his five blocks against Woodlan in a win or the regular season 67-64 loss to Heritage where he scored 21 while grabbing 10 rebounds with six assists and seven steals.
HONORABLE MENTION: Noah Redmon (Heritage), Oliver Adams (Woodlan), Trace Maller (Adams Central), Braylend Reber (Adams Central)
COACH OF THE YEAR: Aaron McClure, Adams Central
Led by McClure, in his 18th season at the helm of the program, Adams Central went 20-5 overall and a perfect 9-0 against ACAC competition when you include the regular season and the ACAC Tournament, both of which the Flying Jets won.
And they didn’t just win against ACAC competition. Save for the conference opening 77-70 shootout win over Woodlan, the Jets were dominant far more than they were pushed. In the regular season, AC outscored their conference opponents 71.2 to 49.3 on average (21.9 point average win) and it grew when you include the three conference tournament wins with a total nine game average margin of victory of 22.7 with four games seeing the Flying Jets score in the 70s.
The team scored in the 70s ten total times and in the eighties twice with benchmark wins over Leo (85-49) and eventual Class 1A state champions Canterbury (78-54).
In total, Adams Central outscored opponents by 16.4 points per game and had win streaks of eight and six games throughout the season.
HONORABLE MENTION: John Baker (Woodlan)
GAME OF THE YEAR: Adams Central at Heritage, January 26
After reading about Adams Central’s dominance this season, you may ask what could make any of their games in the conference the best of the year.
This particular outing was a 65-55 win for the Flying Jets, their second of the season against the Patriots. But what stood out was the fight in Heritage on their home court. As one of the best displays of the program under first year head coach Kyle Sovine, Heritage showed a lot of patience and ability to execute against a team that has just beaten them by 31 points thirteen days earlier. It showed that Heritage could lock in, learn from mistakes and put a little push on AC.
Seniors Kobe Meyer, Noah Redmon and D’vontaye Washington were all locked in while junior Landon Lybarger provided a pair of important threes for Heritage.
And on the flip side, it was one time where we saw some cracks in the Flying Jets over the last two years in the ACAC and instead of crumbling, they rose up and staved off the upset bid. The game was back and forth in multiple ways, even when the score wasn’t, and both teams had to bring their A-game to try and produce a win.
EARLY 2025 ACAC CHAMPION PREDICTION: Jay County
The question here is how much of a carry over the success of Adams Central the last two seasons has. If the culture at Adams Central has been tilted heavily due to past successes, the program could be dangerous into the future as well.
But we know the culture doesn’t waiver much at Jay County ever. Admittedly, the Patriots didn’t have quite as good of a 2023-24 as I expected, but they’ve got some bodies to make things happen. And with Schultz and McClure gone at Adams Central, it does open some things up in the ACAC significantly.
The Patriots return three players next season who played 20 or more games in Gradin Swoveland, Ben Crouch and Levi Muhlenkamp and that is a tremendous base that not many others in the ACAC can replicate into next season as of right now.
These opinions represent those of Bounce and Outside the Huddle. No opinions expressed on Outside the Huddle represent those of any of our advertisers. Follow Bounce on Twitter at Bounce_OTH
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