The nominations have been turned in and the voting has taken place. The members of the PIAA All-State Basketball Teams have been announced this weekend. Two local athletes are among those chosen for the Pennsylvania dream team.
Tyrone senior Tyler Mertiff adds a second team nod in Class AAA to his super senior season and Bellwood-Antis senior Ryan Myers was selected to the third team in Class AA.
Mertiff set school records in football for passing yardage in both a single season and career and was a Second Team Pennsylvania Football News pick. Mertiff went over 1,000 points scored in his basketball career, was a Mountain League First Team All-Star for the second straight year. He was voted the Outstanding Offensive Player and Most Valuable Player in the Mountain League.
“This award just means pride for my school,” said Mertiff, who also is a standout on the Eagles baseball team this spring. “Every time I go out there, I’m playing not only for myself and my teammates, I’m playing for the Tyrone community. It’s a privilege just to be mentioned with Nick Leasure. He’s still the all-time leading scorer. To have my name up there along with his as the only Tyrone basketball players to be named to the All-State team over the last 30 years makes me very proud.”
Mertiff averaged an area-best 20.2 points per game and 10 rebounds for the Golden Eagles
The last Tyrone basketball player to be acclaimed for All-State honors was Nick Leasure during the 1972-73 season.
“That’s a tremendous honor for Tyler,” said Tyrone coach Mike Harris. “It’s a testament to how good a player he is, what Tyler has meant to the team. This is a reward for him for all the hard work he has put in since kindergarten on his basketball skills. It is just a tremendous honor and award.”
Ryan Myers began the year as a two-year, two-way starter on the Bellwood-Antis football team that recorded a 19-3 mark over the past two years, with just a single loss during the regular season. Myers is rounding out his senior season as the starting right fielder for the Blue Devils baseball team that opened their season last Thursday with a convincing 7-1 triumph at Tyrone.
During the basketball season, Myers was the leader on the Bellwood-Antis District VI Class AA championship squad that finished 23-5, just one win short of the school record for wins in a season. Myers was a first team Juniata Valley League selection, averaging 17.7 points and 10 rebounds per game for the Blue Devils.
“It’s a great honor to be chosen for any of the state teams, I was kind of surprised,” said Myers. “I knew from coach Keech that I had been nominated, but I never expected to get picked. This is something that I will be able to keep for the rest of my life. An honor like this can come only from hard work during the off season, playing in summer leagues and working to improve your game, then playing against great competition during the regular season.”
Bellwood-Antis won the District VI title for the first time since 1996 and just the third time in school history.
The last Bellwood-Antis athlete to win all-state basketball honors was Brent Gerwert, who was named to the fifth team, Small School All-State squad in 1997, for former B-A head coach Gene Yingling.
“This is a great honor for Ryan,” said Bellwood-Antis head coach Tim Keech. “Over the last three years, since Ryan was a sophomore, he has worked very hard over the summers on his own to get to where he is now. I said at the banquet that the only thing Ryan needed was to become more consistent. This year he achieved that consistency, we counted on him to score big numbers and get big rebounds every game. Ryan delivered, he was the central key to us being so successful.”
