Unioto’s Blake Fitch repeats as SVC POY, all-league teams released

Derrick Webb, Managing Editor

Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.

CHILLICOTHE — Throughout the entirety of his career, Blake Fitch has been consistent.

He’s consistently aided his Shermans to victory, he’s consistently led by example and, when the game is on the line, he’s been consistently reliable.

Fitch has only proven those statements tenfold this winter, leading Unioto to the program’s 15th league championship and seventh Gold Ball.

During that run, he’s posted 13.3 points per night, scored his 1,000th career point and broken the school’s all-time assists record — previously held by Logan Swackhammer — with the 419th of his career.

For those reasons, and many others, he’s now earned his second Scioto Valley Conference Player of the Year honor — joining Jason Cruse and Nick Corcoran as the only Shermans to win the award twice.

The SVC’s Coach of the Year is Adena’s Andrew Day, who’s led his Warriors to a 12-8 mark this season — a stark turnaround from last year’s mark of 4-20. Day becomes the SVC’s first-ever coach to earn that accolade as both a boys and a girls coach.

Joining Fitch with first-team all-league honors is Zane Trace’s pair of Gunnar McCullough and Grady Stewart, Adena’s Joey Francis, and Huntington’s Frankie Hirsch.

McCullough is closing in on 1,000 career points with 17.3 points per night while Stewart has added 15.1 points per game to ZT’s totals. Francis has been an absolute spark plug for the Warriors, averaging over 15 points per evening, and Hirsch has done it all for the Huntsmen, posting 18 points and 6.8 rebounds each time out.

The league’s second-team list is made up of Unioto’s Jack Welch and Isaac Coy, Piketon’s Bo Henry, Adena’s Colton Garrison and Westfall’s Joe Wray.

Third-team honors were earned by Southeastern’s Gage Cheadle, Westfall’s Bryan Craig, Piketon’s Jace Ritchie, Zane Trace’s Roman Berry, Huntington’s Brennan Smith and Paint Valley’s Jase Rinehart.

Honorable mention honors were earned by the following players: Adena’s Gavin Herald and Luke Preston, Huntington’s Eli Ary and Kalvin Manson, Paint Valley’s Landon Elliott and Brennen Ison, Piketon’s Treven Shanks and Luke Gullion, Southeastern’s Brayden Burns and Brevin Strausbaugh, Unioto’s Dawson Mitchell and Jaxon Zickafoose, Westfall’s Blake Elster and Ethan Rose, and Zane Trace’s Lantz Stevens and Hudson Williams.

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