30 Years Of All-Area Voting: Borgia, Neier Lead Top Honors

The Washington Missourian named its 30th all-area basketball team last month and Borgia has accumulated the most top honors.

Voted on by area coaches and media members, the team typically is made up of Four Rivers Conference schools along with Borgia, Washington and Crosspoint Christian School, located in Villa Ridge.

Borgia has had 14 player of the year honors and head coach Dave Neier has been selected coach of the year 11 times.

Sullivan has the second most selections with six and their head coaches have won five times.

Pacific has had three players of the year and former head coach John VanLeer won head coach of the year three times.

Union, New Haven and Washington have each had two players of the year. St. Clair and St. James each have one. 

Sullivan

The Eagles have been one of the most consistent basketball programs in the area for decades now. 

They haven’t had a losing record since 2005-2006 and some of their best players went on to successful college careers.

Their first player of the year came in the inaugural poll in 1990-1991. 

Jason Woodcock split the honor with Union’s Byron Severyn. 

Two years later, Derek Dace grabbed the top honor in the 1992-1993 season. 

Brian Rhodes would be Sullivan’s next player of the year, winning the honor in the 1999-2000 season with 20 points and eight rebounds per game.

Nathan Whittaker followed in 2004-2005 when he averaged 33 points per game and became the area’s all-time leading scorer.

Justin Biermann won the honor in 2012-2013 with one of the most well-rounded campaigns. Biermann averaged 16 points, eight rebounds, three assists and nearly five steals per game.

Cody McKinney received the honor in 2018-2019. He averaged 20 points, five rebounds, three assists and nearly two steals per game, all while shooting 51 percent from the floor and 51 percent from 3-point range.

Sullivan’s coaches have been some of the area’s best.

Kevin Garner received the school’s first coach of the year honor in 1996-1997 when the Eagles finished fourth in state.

Chris Arand would follow with the honors in 1999-2000 and 2002-2003 when the Eagles advanced to the quarterfinals.

Dino McKinney has won the award twice, first in 2016-2017 and again in 2018-2019 when he guided the Eagles to their first district title since 2003.

Borgia

No school has dominated like Borgia. Eleven different players have won player of the year while Luke Meyer won three times and Nathan Scheer twice. Borgia winners have been: Ben Kandlbinder (1994), Josh Hotz (1995), Jason Reinberg (1996), Jim Schelich (1998), Meyer (2002-2004), Alex Moosman (2006), Paul Eckerle (2007), Scheer (2009-2010), Ben Ruether (2011), Bryce Dolan (2012) and Alex Movila (2017).

Pacific’s winners have been the VanLeer brothers Cullen (2014-2015) and Cameron (2018).

Union’s winners have been Severyn (1991) and Ethan Hughes (2016).

New Haven’s winners have been Tim Scheer (1998) and John Viehland (2001).

Washington’s winners have been Tim Brinker (1997) and Scott Suggs (2008). 

St. Clair’ has had Jason White (1992) and St. James has had Andrew Branson (2020).

John VanLeer (2011, 2014, 2018) is second with the most coach of the year honors. Owensville’s Pete Jett (2001-2002) won twice. Owensville’s Paul Colton (1995) and Greg Williams (2007) also won the award.

New Haven’s Ray Steinhoff (1998, 2014) won twice. Union’s Greg Dunigan (1999) and Andy Herbst (2005) won for the Wildcats. 

Washington’s Dale Menke (1992), Hermann’s Mike Scheer (1996), St. Clair’s Bart Denbow (2008) and St. James’ Ben Smith (2020) are their respective schools’ winners.

Sullivan Independent News

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