Senior Grant Kauffman was named Most Valuable Player for Sweet Home boys basketball at the team’s awards banquet Thursday, May 20.
Kauffman was one of the leaders for the Huskies, who started 1-13 before finding their stride midway through the league season, wound up the year by winning seven of their last eight games to finish 8-14 overall and 6-4 in league to make the state playoffs and win a play-in game over No. 4 Gladstone before losing to eventual state champion Philomath.
“I haven’t experienced one like that before,” Coach Tim Porter said. “Obviously, we started pretty slow. That was not unexpected, because we were playing a tough pre-season schedule. But I didn’t expect to lose that many. I expected to win more than one.”
He said the Huskies persevered and “kept their heads up.”
“I was really proud of the kids for their ability to continue to fight. I’m not sure too many teams in Oregon would have continued fighting like that. They would have hung their heads and given up. These guys didn’t do that. They stuck to it, played hard and made the best of it.”
Junior Hunter Jutte was named Defensive Player of the Year, senior Kyle Rose received the Hustle Award, and senior Chace Hutchins received the Sportsmanship Award. Senior Bryce Daniels earned the Free Throw Award, with an 82 percent average from the line, Porter said.
Kauffman was the only four-year letter winner on the team. Three-year letters went to Jutte and Daniels. Second-year letter winners were Ryan R. Adams, Hutchins and Rose. First-year letters went to junior Brett Blatchly, sophomores Justin Tow and Tyler Plebuch, and freshmen Tucker Porter, Tyler Funk and Daniel Virtue.