Young stars shine in all-star showcase

PERKINS TWP. — Next basketball season is a long way off, but man — it's gonna be fun. That's the clearest takeaway from two absolutely loaded underclass all-star games at Cedar Point Sports Center on Thursday night. The area's classes of 2025, 2026 and even 2027 are dazzling. That light will only be shining brighter by next winter. "We're all just really good," Sandusky junior Kobe Brown said. "And that's just really good for us to compete against each other." Just one look at the court during the Spy Report All-Star boys underclass game was all it took to notice the talent — scholarship-level players like Margaretta sophomore Julian Washington, Sandusky junior Jason Henlon, Oak Harbor's Ethan Stokes all on the same team. And that team also had Sandusky's Brown, Margaretta's Judah Keller, Huron's Jackson McNulty, Genoa's Walter Plantz and Crestview's Justice Thompson. They didn't disappoint. Henlon connected on two alley-oop lobs for Washington slams in the first half. "There's definitely schools that have guys," Washington said. "Everybody around here is just working hard, trying to get better, and there's definitely a lot of guys with skill. They all play on really good teams, and it was fun to go at it with all of them." Stokes dunked on his own all-star teammate's head midway through the first half when he soared to jam home a miss right over Washington, who earned boys game MVP honors with 23 points in a 105-83 win. "It was fun, for sure," Washington said. Stokes, the Oak Harbor junior, finished the night with three hoops — all putback dunks. "They're definitely fun," Stokes said. "... It's just a good time. Everyone is just out there talking, having fun. It's definitely a good environment." These guys have competed for years, both during the school season as opponents and sometimes as teammates during AAU. That made the festivities all the more fun. When Clyde junior Brayden Olson — affectionately known by everyone in the area as "B-Dog" — got going en route to 24 points, it invited all sorts of smiles and chatter. "It's the best competition around, and we all come together and compete, that's what it's really about," Brown said. There was even some sweet classmate combat when Sandusky's Amir Aaron guarded Brown. Brown heard the chatter behind him and knocked down one of his five triples right in Aaron's face. "He was talking to the fans, telling them I wasn't gonna score," Brown said. "He went for the jump, and I hit it." Sandusky's the greatest example of that Class of 2025's level, with a 22-2 team this season starting five of those juniors. But it's everywhere. Olson is classmates with Brennan Wilson. Norwalk's Mason Gamble and Perkins' Joey Diederich are all juniors, too. "You see pretty much the same faces, and they're good players," Stokes said. "We're just competing all the time from when we were younger until now. It's just cool to see." The girls underclass game was helmed by three leading juniors, Norwalk's Abby Koenig and Kenzie Smith and Upper Sandusky's Grace Walton. Koenig led all scorers with nine points. Smith and Walton each had seven, and Walton earned game MVP honors. "I love playing with everyone," Koenig said. "They're all so talented. It's really fun seeing how they play and playing with them so we can work with each other on our game." Perkins' Camryn VanVlerah, another junior, grabbed a bunch of rebounds and finished strong inside off a sweet feed from Koenig. Bellevue's Hailey Rees is in that junior class, too. "We've always played together and always grown up playing against each other," VanVlerah said. "It's fun to be able to play with them and not against them." The talent in the girls game got into the '26 and '27 groups, too. Margaretta's Ellyse Schaefer, the Polar Bears' leading scorer this winter, is just a sophomore. So is Bellevue's 6-foot-3 Kaitlyn Turinsky. "There's a ton of talent at the '25 level, and the '26 is starting to come up, too," said local AAU coach Tony Haerr, who coached during Thursday's festivities. "There's so much talent around here, it's pretty amazing to see." And then there's Gibsonburg freshman phenom Elly Evarts. She dished out multiple assists during the contest and drained one deep triple from the wing. And then Evarts went out and played in the senior game — and scored 10 points — when they were short on numbers, because why not? "They're all good, and they're really nice, too," Evarts said. "It's different, like an AAU team. It was definitely a lot of good girls here together." So if you're making plans for next winter, they better feature the gym as a destination. It's gonna be an absolute blast. "It's definitely something where you're challenging each other to get better," Perkins' Camryn VanVlerah said. "I love playing against the girls I get to play against."