Story Photos
 Photo by Greg Ebersole Mark Morris senior Matt Argyropoulos leads the Monarchs out of the Tacoma Dome locker room prior to a game in the Class 2A state basketball tournament earlier this month. Argyropoulos was voted first-team all-tournament after leading MM to a second-place state trophy. |
Daily News names all-area basketball team
Tuesday, March 27, 2007 12:13 AM PDT
By Rick S. Alvord
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E-mail this articleWhen athletes are naturally gifted, sometimes it looks like they're not even trying out there. Things just seem to come easy for them.
That's only partially true for Mark Morris senior Matt Argyropoulos.
Sure, there are nights when he can rely on pure talent alone to dominate basketball games. But then there's the other 90 percent of the time, when Argyropoulos totes his lunch pail into the gymnasium, punches his time card and goes to work.
Case in point: Mark Morris' Class 2A state championship game against Lynden on March 10 in the Tacoma Dome. On a night when his teammates were being shut down offensively, Argyropoulos found a way to punish the Lions' aggressive defense for a game-high 23 points in the Monarchs' 62-44 loss.
Rest assured, those were the hardest 23 points Argyropoulos scored all season. That performance, however, was typical of what the Mark Morris program received from the 6-foot-2 guard in the past two seasons.
He averaged 18.9 points a game as a junior and 21.5 this season in a Greater St. Helens 2A League Most Valuable Player campaign. For his efforts, Argyropoulos has been named The Daily News' 2007 Player of the Year for boys basketball.
Joining Argyropoulos on the first team are Toledo's Ryan Votaw, who led the Indians to a second-place trophy at the 1A state tourney; Wahkiakum's Toby David, the leading scorer for a Mules squad that also took home runner-up hardware at the Class 2B state tournament in Spokane; Mark Morris junior Jeray Key, perhaps the top defender in Southwest Washington at any classification; and Clatskanie phenom Scott Hodges, whose scoring, passing and defense helped the Tigers to 21 wins.
(See chart on this page for second-team selections and honorable mention.)
Wallace and Madison Justus of Forks were named co-Most Valuable Players of the Evergreen by the division's coaches.
Joining her on the All-Area first team are Woodland star guard Megan Peabody, the leading scorer for a Beaver squad that captured the GSHL 2A crown; Kelso junior Sadie Salte, the driving force behind the Lassies' late-season charge to the district championship; Toutle Lake's Lindsey Scheffler, who led the Ducks to an eighth-place finish at the 2B state tourney; and Ilwaco's Anna Kitzman, the Most Valuable Player in the SWW 1A Trico Division.
Choosing a Coach of the Year for both the boys and girls was perhaps the most difficult task for the TDN sports staff.
There were countless strong boys' candidates, including Mark Morris' Bill Bakamus, who guided the Monarchs to their seventh straight league title, fourth straight district title, the school's first 20-0 regular season, a 26-1 overall record and second place at the 2A state tourney.
A number of Bakamus' colleagues also turned in stellar seasons. Toledo's Scott Merzoian won the SWW 1A Evergreen Division championship and the first District 4 title in his nine-year tenure. Merzoian also coached the Indians to a second-place finish at the 1A state tourney in Yakima, the first title-game appearance in school history.
Wahkiakum's Bill Olsen reloaded and took his Mules all the way to the championship game of the 2B state tournament, where they fell to Northwest Christian of Colbert. Then there was Kalama's Jody Stemkoski, who watched 6-foot-8 sophomore Eric Hutchison leave the program for Mark Morris in the off-season and still guided the Chinooks to within one victory of the 1A state tournament. And don't forget about rookie head man Rally Wallace at R.A. Long, whose Lumberjacks returned just one starter and nearly made a return trip to the Tacoma Dome.
But the biggest turnaround came at Rainier, where second-year head coach Wes Armstrong led the Columbians to the final 16 of the Oregon 3A state playoffs. And although Rainier lost on the road to No. 1-ranked Santiam Christian 45-39 in an elimination game, it put the finishing touches on a 15-13 campaign ---- a far cry from the Columbians' 2-23 record in Armstrong's first season.
Lacey DeWeert of Kelso edged out Rainier's Doug Knox for the girls' All-Area Coach of the Year. DeWeert's team finished 4-16 in her first season in 2005-06, but she led a young squad to the district championship this year with a stunning upset victory over powerful Hudson's Bay.
The Lassies finished with an 11-14 record and won a game in the regional tournament.
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