SF Chronicle Player of the year

Boys player of the year: Mitty's Aaron Gordon
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Mitch Stephens, Special to The Chronicle

Monday, April 4, 2011

At one end, in the WCAL championship game against Serra, Mitty's 6-foot-7, 215-pound sophomore Aaron Gordon blocked a shot off the backboard and secured the rebound.

He dribbled the length of the court, twice changing directions - first going behind his back to go left, then immediately spinning right to avoid two defenders.

Gordon was fouled as he approached the free-throw line, but he took one more dribble before floating 7 feet through the air and swishing a finger roll that didn't even count.

It didn't matter. The crowd groaned in amazement anyway. Gordon's coach, Tim Kennedy, and his teammates barely blinked.

"He does that sort of thing at practice every day, and he has for two seasons," Kennedy said. "We're almost spoiled how good he is."

The sequence might have bored the Monarchs, but it showed almost all of the vast skills that have made Gordon ESPN's No. 8 recruit nationally from the Class of 2013. It also demonstrated why he's The Chronicle's Player of the Year.

Gordon - the younger brother of two-time first-team All-Metro player Drew Gordon, who averaged 13 points and 10.5 rebounds per game at New Mexico this season - averaged 18.1 points, 13.2 rebounds and 4.5 blocks per game.

Among all the big-name Bay Area players up for the award - and there were many - Gordon was the only to lead his team to a state title. He is the first sophomore to earn WCAL Player of the Year honors and is the first to win The Chronicle's boys Player of the Year in recent memory.

He had 17 points and tied a state Division II championship-game record with 21 rebounds in a 53-50 win over Summit-Fontana. He had 17 rebounds in the NorCal finals and 15 points, 19 rebounds and eight blocks in the WCAL title win over Serra.

Beyond his long wingspan, big vertical jump and guard skills, what sets Gordon apart is his maturity and competitiveness. He shot 63 percent from the field and took perhaps 10 bad shots all season as Mitty finished 32-2 and No. 1 in The Chronicle's rankings.

"The main thing about Aaron is he just wants to win," Kennedy said. "He doesn't care if he scores two or 20, he just finds a way to win, whether by block or assist or rebound ... or dunk."

Regional players of the year

Contra Costa/Tri-Valley

Travis Pacos (De La Salle-Concord): The 6-foot-3 senior was the heart, soul and leading scorer of the overachieving Spartans (27-6), who surprisingly won the NorCal Division I championship. Pacos, who scored fewer than 20 total points as a junior, averaged more than 17 per game and led De La Salle to a 49-43 win over Castro Valley in the NorCal title game, scoring 13 of his team-high 19 points during an 18-0 run starting in the third quarter.
East Bay

Jabari Brown (Oakland): The 6-5 senior guard, an Oregon signee, averaged 24.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.2 steals per game for the Wildcats (20-9), who lost in the NorCal Division I semifinals. One of the nation's top 15 recruits, Brown was even better during the postseason, when he averaged just less than 30 points per game.
North Bay

Stuart Wesonga (San Marin-Novato): The powerful 6-7, 220-pound senior led San Marin to a historic season, claiming the school's first North Coast Section title in 43 years. The UC Irvine-bound forward averaged 21.5 points, 20.3 rebounds and 5.2 blocks per game. He had a combined 52 points, 55 rebounds and 11 blocks in NCS semifinal and championship-game wins.
San Francisco

Brenden Glapion (Washington): The 6-3 senior guard averaged 23.0 points per game, seventh most in the Bay Area, leading the Eagles to their first San Francisco Section title since 1982. Glapion scored 27 points in the Eagles' wild 75-72 win over Mission in the final, making 14 of 16 foul shots. He was a model of consistency, scoring at least 20 points in his final 13 games and in double digits in all 35 games (25 wins).