It was a very productive fall season for our area teams. It was also a productive fall season for our coverage area for the Maryville Forum, adding the Times-Tribune and Worth County to our coverage area.
With that change, I am adjusting a little bit how we did postseason awards as a paper and in addition to naming Players of the Year in every sport, I’m adding all-area teams for football, volleyball, softball and cross-country.
My teams follow how an actual team lines up on the field (football using 11-man rules) so football has 11 on each side of the ball, volleyball has six plus a libero, softball has nine and cross-country has five each. Also in football, each player can make the team once, so if you make it on defense, you can’t on offense and vice versa.
That criteria made for some tough decisions, but the teams were fun to create and I believe it is a good way to recognize more players that work so hard all year.
In addition to the teams, all eight fall sports have a Player of the Year. I’ll introduce each in this column as well as the reasoning behind why they are deserving.
Football Player of the Year:
Derek Quinlin, Maryville
The Spoofhound junior quarterback completely changed the way that Maryville played offensively this season — allowing them to take advantage of a war chest of offensive playmakers like Cooper Loe, Caden Stoecklein, Delton Davis, Wyatt Garner, Drew Burns, Cooper Gastler and Don Allen.
A the center of everything for Maryville this season was the fist-year starting quarterback. He led the Hounds to conference and district championships this season.
With playmakers like Davis, Garner, Gastler and Allen back with Quinlin for their senior seasons, the evolution of the Air-Webb offense may just be getting started.
ALL-AREA TEAM
QB Derek Quinlin; Maryville junior
RB Carter Luke; Platte Valley senior
RB Caden Stoecklein; Maryville senior
WR Delton Davis; Maryville junior
WR Blake Bohannon; Nodaway Valley senior
TE Dylan McIntyre; Worth County senior
OL Kort Watkins; Maryville senior
OL Creed Wilcox; Worth County senior
OL Elias Alarcon; Worth County junior
OL Wyatt Miller; Platte Valley senior
OL Lucas Vierthaler; Maryville sophomore
DE Trevor Weir; Platte Valley senior
NT Jace Latham; Worth County senior
DE Justin Miller; Platte Valley sophomore
LB Cooper Loe; Maryville senior
LB Macen Shurvington; Maryville senior
LB Levi Cassavaugh; Worth County senior
LB Brandon McQueen; Platte Valley junior
CB Drew Burns; Maryville senior
CB Don Allen; Maryville junior
S Grant McIntyre; Worth County junior
S Aydan Blackford; Platte Valley junior
K Noah Bellamy; Maryville sophomore
P Tyler New; Worth County junior
KR Michael Cook; Nodaway Valley junior
Volleyball Player of the Year:
Rylee Vierthaler, Maryville
Rylee Vierthaler, Kennedy Kurz and Anastyn Pettlon accomplished some amazing things over their four years with Spoofhound volleyball with the programs first state championship as sophomores and numerous records broken for each.
It should almost be a 3-way shared award, but Vierthaler takes the honor narrowly over her teammates.
The Class 3 First Team All-State selection recorded 576 kills, 352 digs and 41 aces this season in helping the Spoofhounds reach the district championship match.
She also holds four individual program records.
ALL-AREA TEAM
Setter — Anastyn Pettlon; Maryville senior
Libero — Kennedy Kurz; Maryville senior
Hitter — Rylee Vierthaler; Maryville senior
Hitter — Reganne Fast; Nodaway Valley sophomore
Hitter — Addison Weldon; Maryville sophomore
DS/S — Jacquelyn Cline; North Nodaway senior
DS/S — Paige Hanson; Nodaway Valley sophomore
Softball Player of the Year:
Maggie Collins, Platte Valley
Platte Valley coach Shelly Deen has taken advantage of Maggie Collins’ versatility a lot over the last three seasons, playing the junior at catcher, shortstop and third base — wherever she was needed.
I took advantage of that versatility too with my All-Area team, placing her at first base to get other catchers and players on the left side of the infield. For the record, I’ve seen her play first base, and unsurprisingly, she’s very good there.
Despite beginning the season with a severely injured wrist and unable to hit, Collins was able to get healthy and finish the season with a .500 batting average, two home runs, 12 doubles and a .757 slugging percentage.
Collins led Platte Valley to a district championship this season.
ALL-AREA TEAM
P Hadley DeFreece; Northeast Nodaway sophomore
C Baylie Busby; Northeast Nodaway sophomore
1B Maggie Collins; Platte Valley junior
2B Brylie Angle; Platte Valley junior
SS Kyah Steele; Worth County junior
3B Sarah Langford; Platte Valley senior
OF Ella Schulte; Maryville junior
OF Hailey Adwell; Worth County senior
OF Emma Sprague; Maryville sophomore
Boys Runner of the Year:
Riley Blay, Nodaway Valley
Riley Blay continued to dominate Class 1 running in Missouri with his fifth trip to the top of state podium — his second-straight in cross country.
Blay won the 3,200-, 1,600- and 800-meter runs last spring and has bookended that meet with a his cross-country state titles.
Blay cruised to the Class 1 State Cross-Country title — winning by 33 seconds.
Boys All-Area Team: Riley Blay, Nodaway Valley; Dylan Masters, Maryville; Bradley Deering, Maryville; Connor Blackford, Maryville; Ethan Holtman, Platte Valley.
Girls Runner of the Year:
Mya Wray, Platte Valley
Platte Valley freshman Mya Wray and her 4-person freshman class at Platte Valley wasted little time leaving their mark on the program.
Wray, Allison Riley, Mylie Holtman and Emalee Langford teamed with senior Andrea Riley to win the program’s first state championship.
Wray finished the season with the fastest time in Class 1 and ran through an injured ankle to take third at the state meet.
With the four freshmen having three more seasons, they are just beginning to form what should be a special legacy.
Girls All-Area Team: Mya Wray, Platte Valley; Andrea Riley, Platte Valley; Allison Riley, Platte Valley; Ellie Parsons, Maryville; Katherine Pohren, Maryville.
Soccer Player of the Year:
Kason Teale, Maryville
Following the best season in the history of Spoofhound soccer, Maryville had to replace three of its four primary attacking players with Jacob Ferris, James DiStefano and Andrew Cronk, but the bright side for the Hounds is that the one player they returned was junior Kason Teale.
Teale made sure that the Spoofhounds kept scoring and kept winning. The Hounds won the conference and district championships again this season and ended up advancing as far as any public school team in the Class 1 playoffs — making the quarterfinals.
Teale was selected to the Class 1 All-State First Team. He finished with 23 goals and 15 assists.
Golfer of the Year:
Cailyn Auffert, Maryville
Despite moving up a class this season, Spoofhound junior Cailyn Auffert was able to cap her season with her first state medal.
Auffert took fifth at the Class 2 state championship in Bolivar. She shot at 83 and an 82 to accomplish that feat.
The Spoofhounds were undefeated this season and won district and conference championships.
Tennis Player of the Year:
Jewl Galapin, Maryville
Jewl Galapin spent the past three years climbing higher and higher in the Spoofhound program.
She joined the tennis team as a sophomore and competed in varsity matches that season. As a junior, she climbed to the No. 4 spot in the lineup and became a consistent winner.
This season, Galapin led the Spoofhounds as their No. 1 player.
