The Juniata Valley All-Star Teams were announced Monday at the league’s annual recognition luncheon at the Lakemont Park Casino.
Bellwood-Antis seniors Ryan Myers and Steve Crider were named to the First Team Boys All-Stars and junior Katie Gardner was named to the Girls First Team All-Stars. All three move up after being named Second Team selections last year. Joining Myers and Crider on the First Team were Earl Hollis, Justin Price and Jared House of Mount Union, and Carl Anderson of Penns Valley.
Ricky Shannon was selected to the Boys Third Team and also was honored as the Juniata Valley League Outstanding Defensive Player of the Year. This marks the second straight year a Bellwood-Antis player has won the Defensive Player Award, Troy Beaver won the award in 2002. Blue Devil Tom Boob won the award back-to-back in 1996 and 1997.
Steve Holencik of Moshannon Valley won the league scoring title with 341 points for an average of 18.9 points per game. Mount Union post player Earl Hollis was selected the league’s Outstanding Player, Zack Jones of Williamsburg won the Sportsmanship Award and Juniata Valley League champ Mount Union’s Joe Komir was named Coach of the Year.
Williamsburg won the boys junior high championship. Either Williamsburg or Bellwood-Antis has won the junior high title every year since 1995. The Little Blue Pirates won in 1995 and 1996, 1998 and 1999 and 2003, while Bellwood-Antis took top honors in 1997, 2000 and 2002. The two shared honors in 2001, which kept Bellwood-Antis from winning outright for three consecutive years, forcing the Little Blue Devils to share the top spot.
The girls First Team All-Stars consist of Gardner, Katrina Greer and Brandy O’Hara of Penns Valley, Gabrielle Benson of Mount Union, Claudia McDowell of Juniata Valley and Ashley Severa of Williamsburg.
Sophomore Stephanie Hatch was selected to the Second Team for the Lady Blue Devils
Ashley Edevane, a junior, was named as an Honorable Mention choice to the Girls All-Star Team.
Claudia McDowell is the leading scorer with 329 points for an average of 18.3 per game. Gabrielle Benson won the Sportsmanship Award and the rest of the JVL hardware was collected by Juniata Valley League Girls champion Penns Valley. Katrina Greer was chosen the Outstanding Player, Kari Lucas was honored as the Defensive Player of the Year and Karen McCaffrey was picked as Coach of the Year. McCaffrey selection breaks a two-year string for Bellwood-Antis. The Blue Devils Jamie Forshey, who stepped down as head girls coach this year due to health reasons had been the JVL Coach of the Year in both 2001 and 2002.
