BOYS BASKETBALL — Team, coach and player of the year finalists

By barstoolfanatics on March 21, 2026 • ( Leave a comment )

Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — History was made on the local basketball courts over the winter, with a pair of H-DNL boys programs achieving something they have never achieved before.

And arguably, those two teams weren’t even the best in the area.

Now that the dust has settled on another memorable season, it’s time to take a look back and hand out our annual Humboldt Sports end-of-season awards.

Next week, we will announce our boys and girls coach, team and player of the year, with the winners being chosen from a talented and deep list of finalists in all three categories.

Click here for a full look at the list of our girls finalists.

For the boys, meanwhile, three teams and three coaches stand out after what they achieved this winter.

Both McKinleyville and Eureka enjoyed history-making campaigns, while St. Bernard’s was as good as any team in the area for much of the winter, and perhaps even better than either the Panthers or Loggers.

And that’s reflected in our list of finalists for all three categories.

Head coach Chris Davis (McKinleyville), Jimmy Rodgers (Eureka) and Pat Shanahan (St. Bernard’s) all did outstanding jobs with their respective programs in what was perhaps the best seasons on the sidelines for all three coaches.

And their players responded.

Six of of our seven finalists for player of the year also come from those three teams, with Arcata’s Luke Lemke rounding out the field after another outstanding season for the multi-sport senior.

The Panthers saved their best for last.

After dropping two games to St. Bernard’s during the regular season, the Mack boys responded on the biggest stage of all, turning in an outstanding team performance on the way to beating the Crusaders in the Dick Niclai Tournament final.

The Panthers also secured a first-ever outright Big 5 championship, beating a quality field of teams, including a Eureka team that would go on to claim a first-ever North Coast Section championship, an Arcata team that was playing as well as any Big 5 school down the stretch of the regular season, and a junior-heavy Del Norte team that raised the level of its play at a crucial time of the season on the way to qualifying for the Niclai tournament.

Despite their loss in the Niclai final, the Crusaders enjoyed a season for ages, going 22-2 in the regular season.

And they achieved that with as good a trio of players as any team in the H-DNL has, all three of whom are included among our player of the year finalists.

As always, there were a handful of very talented players who deserve an honorable mention, a group that includes McKinleyville’s Bode Douglass, who was without doubt the comeback player of the year in the H-DNL after suffering a knee injury in the offseason, as well as influential Eureka junior Ryder Mitchell.

A pair of Del Norte players — junior Damian Escalera and sophomore Ty Blue — also barely missed out on inclusion on the prestigious list of finalists, but don’t be surprised to see both of them front and center next year.

Here then are our finalists for the Humboldt Sports coach, team and player of the year.