Stammen, Brunet share top honors

Coldwater's Andy Brunet and St. Henry's Mitchel Stammen did everything they could to help their teams win during the 2015-2016 basketball season.

The seniors from rival schools put up great individual numbers in the process. For that reason, Brunet and Stammen share the distinction as top players on The Daily Standard Dream Team.

"I really appreciate it," said Brunet, who recently announced his intention to play basketball for Walsh University. "I've got to give a big thanks to my teammates, coaches and definitely Mitch Lefeld (a former Cavalier who earned MAC and Mercer County Player of the Year honors in the mid-1990s). He really helped me out with my game."

"It definitely means a lot to win this award," Stammen said. "You look at all the players in the past who have won this award, all the guys who have gone off to play in college, just to be put in that category with them, to be considered one of the best players in the area is a huge honor."

St. Henry coach Eric Rosenbeck earns his second Dream Team Coach of the Year honor after piloting his team to an 18-7 record, a second-place finish in the MAC and a second straight trip to the district final.

"We have excellent players who are willing to work extremely hard and who believe in what we're trying to do. The credit goes to the players for being as fantastic as they are," Rosenbeck said.

Brunet and Stammen were the definition of fantastic this year.

A 6-foot-9 double-double machine, Brunet was an impact player offensively and defensively. He averaged 16.1 points while shooting an area-leading 71.9 percent. He was also the best rebounder at 13.2 rpg. and shot blocker at 3.5 bpg. And nobody can forget Brunet's triple-double game against New Bremen on Jan 8, when he recorded 14 points, 19 rebounds and an eye-popping 13 blocks.

Those types of efforts throughout the season earned Brunet MAC Player of the Year honors, becoming the first Cavalier to win the conference's top honor since Lefeld won the second of his back-to-back honors in 1995.

"It was really good to see Andy get MAC Player of the Year, because he totally deserved it with the stat line he put up," Stammen complimented. "He was averaging a double-double every game, getting a triple-double sometimes with blocks. He was just a really fun guy to compete with the last couple of years."

Stammen and his teammates got the better of Brunet's team twice during the regular season, once in the Asset Allocation Tournament in Coldwater and then again in the regular season finale. The Cavs had been alone atop the MAC standings before a loss to Versailles knocked them down a peg. Coldwater went 13-10 overall and finished tied for third in the league at 6-3. Their season was ended with a 60-59 loss to Bluffton in the Division III sectional final at Elida.

"We did pretty well this season and we've continued to get better year-by-year since my sophomore season," Brunet said. "We were also kind of upset with the way it ended, but I guess that's how it goes sometimes."

With Ryan Mikesell now plying his trade for the University of Dayton, more of the scoring burden went on Stammen. It was a role Stammen relished as he averaged 20 points per clip during the regular season, a stretch that included a career-high 36 against Versailles.

"Coach Rosenbeck told me early on that I was going to have to be the guy that kind of led the way, along with a few other seniors on the team," Stammen said. "I knew I couldn't do the things that (Ryan) did, but I was just going to try to do things to the best of my ability to help the team. I knew that I could score some points, so I helped out that way.

"One thing I always liked about Ryan is he always tried to get his teammates involved. I always went into every game trying to get my average to help my team because that was my role. I always wanted to help get my teammates going too, because we weren't always at our best when there was just one guy scoring all the points. We were always at our best when we had 3-to-4 guys in double-digits."

Stammen was second in the MAC in scoring behind Versailles' sophomore Justin Ahrens (22.7 ppg.). Stammen led the area in free throw attempts during the regular season with 151 and shot 72 percent, which ranked in the area top 10. He also was third in total three-pointers made with 48.

The Dream Team Player of the Year award has gone to a St. Henry player in each of the last three seasons (Mikesell won the honor the past two seasons, sharing the honor with Celina's Ryan Hoyng last year).

With Stammen, fellow Dream Team-mate Jesse Niekamp, Paul Stammen and Evan Lefeld, the Redskins evolved into one of the better defensive units in the MAC and notched some impressive wins throughout the year. They posted a six-game winning streak in January and went 11-4 over their final 15 games. St. Henry's season ended with a 60-51 loss to Perry in last Friday's Division IV district final.

"I think all the guys, including myself, are disappointed that we couldn't quite get over the hump," Rosenbeck said. "We were one game away from winning the MAC, which is one of our goals. We were one game away from winning the Asset Allocation Tournament, which is one of our goals. We were one game away from getting to the regionals. But, with all that being said, there's so much to be proud of through all the hard work and the diligence that these guys put in through practice. They did everything they could to put themselves in a position to be successful."

Dream Team:
Co-Players of the Year
Mitchel Stammen,
St. Henry
20.5 ppg., 4.1 rpg., 2.3 apg.

Co-Players of the Year
Andy Brunet,
Coldwater
15.9., 13.3 rpg., 71.5 FG%, 3.4 bpg.

Jesse Niekamp,
St. Henry
12.7 ppg., 7.6 rpg., 61.5 FG%

Caleb Hoyng,
Celina
13.5 ppg., 7.3 rpg., 80.0 FT%

Tyler Mescher,
Marion Local
15.3 ppg., 6.5 rpg., 56.9 FG%

Micaiah Cox,
Fort Recovery
14.4 ppg., 8.3 rpg., 56.5 FG%

Coach of the Year:
Eric Rosenbeck,
St. Henry
18-7, District Runner-up

Honorable Mention:
Celina - Christian Berry
Coldwater - Aaron Harlamert, Dylan Thobe, Jack Hemmelgarn
Fort Recovery - Darien Sheffer, Caleb Martin
Marion Local - Derek Albers, Cole Griesdorn
Minster - Josh Nixon
New Bremen - Deion Hoehne, Greg Parker
New Knoxville - Logan Leffel, Zach Neumann
Parkway - Clayton Agler
St. Henry - Evan Lefeld
St. Marys - Derek Jay, Jacob Grannan