Hawk’s Boys Basketball Best Player and Spotlight

Boys Basketball will be our next expedition in seeing who might be that player that gets The

Caleb Kreiger had a very impressive year for the Hawks Basketball Team.

ReSporter thoughts on being most valuable as well as that Spotlight Player for this coming season.

Thinking through past players and their worth in numbers and by talking to Coaches made this a tough sport to pick.

Doug Hubnik having such a good year in dishing out assists this past season has to rank up their in how he holds himself,  just  like most of the basketball players has been a joy no matter their record.

Hubnik had more assists than other players have had in a two or three year period.

Matt Magness is another player that is near the top or leading several statistical categories.

 Points Scored:      555       First
 3Point Goals:        52       Third
 Free Throws Made:   120       First
 Rebounds:           155       Fifth
 Steals:              69       Third
 Assists:            136       Second

Pretty impressive set of stats, which along with his team attitude has to put him near the top of best basketball players for the Hawks.

Tanner Jones was also a solid player in his years playing at Canyon Lake as he teamed up with Christian Pena for a good one-two punch during those formative years as the Hawks were getting started.

Jones injury during his senior year might have been one reason for missing the playoffs that season. Bandera was the place where he took a spill and had some issues as he completed the year.

 Tanner Jones                           Christian Pena
 Points Scored:    348      Fifth       Points Scored:     356     Fourth
 Free Throws Made:  66      Sixth       Free Throws Made:  109     Second
 Steals:            76      Second      Steals:             49     Seventh
 Assists:           90      Third       Assists:            59     Fifth

Christian Pena also suffered during the first of his Senior year when he got hurt playing football. Pena was one of CL’s best slashers as he had a way of getting to the basket and if that did not work, then a foul on the opponent was in the offing.

Either way would result in points. Pena and Magness were both experts in this area during their basketball career.

The ReSporter has highlighted several guards, how about some post players.

Neal Whitehead rises to the top with a solid defensive game for the Hawks. Whitehead had several areas where he was near the top for CL.

 Total Rebounds:      203       Second
 Steals:               78       First
 Blocks:               47       Second

Stuart Lowry and Cole Green were the first players that made the 3point line their friend. Green finished first with 77 long bombs while Lowry is now in fifth place with 31 for his career.

Lowry was a very consistent scorer as he finished with 407 points for Canyon Lake.

 Stuart Lowry                         Cole Green
 Points Scored:    407    Second      Points Scored:      348    Fifth
 3Point Goals:      31    Fifth       3Point Goals:        77    First
 Free Throws Made:  60    Seventh     Not Available

The ReSporter has decided to name Caleb Kreiger as the Hawks best player. We will first look at his stats based on just one year of Varsity competition.

When you project where Kreiger might have been with just one more year of playing, then you have a player that would of finished first at least in four different categories.

 Points Scored:       406     Third      150 points from taking first.
 Free Throws Made:     72     Fifth       49 free throws away from first
 Total Rebounds:      218     First       15 more rebounds than Neal Whitehead
 Blocks:               59     First       12 more than Neal Whitehead

Kreiger also helped in giving Doug Hubnik a number of assists. A tall drink of water inside would help Canyon Lake enjoy one of their best years on the hard court.

However, basketball is still waiting outside the dance hall as they stand in the hallway with the Boy’s Soccer team as Canyon Lake’s only team sport to not experience a playoff.

As The ReSporter was thinking of who might be a spotlight player, then you don’t have a lot of players that are coming back from last year’s club.

Returning players are Andrew Riali, Luke Curry, Tyler Clark, Isaac Mendez, and Javier Mendez. What you don’t have is a lot of height with that crew and so Coach Lucas Chapman will have to be creative and turn a team without height into a team that can make others have to keep up with the Hawks.

There will not be much pounding inside which might make your Hawks a faster paced team trying to beat their opponents down the court so they can get into their offense quicker for easier shots.

With that being said, The ReSporter puts the Spotlight on Andrew Riali this season.

Riali will only need 15 more three pointers to take over first as he finished with 62 last season.

Can Riali be a more consistent offensive player? There were games where Riali was quiet and did not get into the flow of the game and he will have to bring his ‘A’ game every night if the Hawks want to have a chance of getting some important wins.

Granted, if Riali is hitting then a 10 point deficit can be erased quickly and in those games, those

Sharp Shooter Andrew Riali

3point shots will also open up some driving lanes for the quicker guards as the opposing defense will have to commit players to that outside shot.

That brings The ReSporter to another Spotlight for the Junior Varsity team. How this group of players perform next season will be very important on writing the essay for what could be a good season.

A good off season and you might not miss a beat when next year comes a calling.

Here are some players that will be fun to see how they react on a Varsity schedule:

Garrett Winters: A smaller version of Riali. If Winters gets hot then he can carry a team offensively.
Trendon Martinez: A slasher in the same vein as Magness and Pena….he can be an intregal part for next year.
Skyler Tschoepe: Coach might want to see how Tschoepe might play underneath as he can bring some quickness and that can also bring their opposing teams big man out of the paint. That could help with offensive boards.
Tommy Clark: Another player that can be described as ‘Hustle’. The battery is always charged.
Sean Nolan: If this player can work on his quickness then Coach Chapman can have a very effective team when he needs to match braun for braun. Still a project, but his improvement last season was huge.

Fun year and yes there are many others that were not mentioned but when this JV team was on last year, then they had some great wins. Go ask Fredericksburg!!

Consistency will once again be that one word that will have to be realized. Are you listening Riali?