QUINTON BURLENSKI

Sal Dean moved to Chapmanville for his ultimate season of highschool basketball with one objective in thoughts: To finish his profession with a state championship.

The electrifying 6-foot guard did simply that as he guided the Tigers to their third state title with a 59-49 overcome Charleston Catholic within the Class AA championship sport.

Dean is now reaping the advantages from that match run, which additionally featured wins over Ravenswood and Bluefield, as he was voted the captain of the Class AA All-State Team by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association.

Irvin’s teammate sophomore Parker Schramm was named captain of the second crew. He was joined by Bluefield senior Caleb Fuller, South Harrison senior Noah Burnside, St. Marys senior Luke Powell, Ritchie County senior Ethan Haught, Wheeling Central Catholic junior Quinton Burlenski, Trinity junior Carter Hartsock and Charleston Catholic sophomore Max Wilcox.

A 6-2 junior, Burlenski led the Maroon Knights in scoring, rebounding and made three-point photographs. He additionally eclipse the 1,000-point mark for his profession.

“Sal is a super competitor. He doesn’t like to lose,” Chapmanville coach Brad Napier mentioned. “He’s a very hard worker. You talk about a kid that brings it every day in practice. He plays with the same kind of energy that he played the state tournament with every day in practice. He’s just going to do whatever he can do to lead his team to a win.”

In the three state match wins, Dean stuffed up the stat sheet for the Tigers. He scored a mixed 47 factors, together with 9 3-pointers, to go together with 25 rebounds and 14 assists.

Any time Chapmanville wanted a giant play to alter the momentum of the sport, Dean stepped as much as the event, whether or not it’s a clutch step-back 3 or a chase-down block on the defensive finish.

“He just provides a huge spark when he’s in the game because he plays with so much emotion,” Napier mentioned. “And he gives his teammates a lot of confidence too. He kind of feeds off the emotion of the crowd, and a lot of the other guys feed off him and his energy.”

In his senior season, Dean, who scored 1,465 factors through the first three years of his profession at Belfry High School in Kentucky, averaged 21 factors, 7.4 rebounds and seven.1 assists a sport.

Napier, who has coached a number of all-state gamers throughout his teaching profession, together with former Class AA captain and present Marshall starter Obinna Anochili-Killen, mentioned Dean ranks proper up there.

“Sal is going to have a great opportunity to play at the next level somewhere,” Napier mentioned. “He’s going to find that out in a few weeks to a month. We look forward to helping him try to find a good fit for him at the next level, because we know he can play at that level and be very successful at the college level.”

Dean was joined on the primary crew by 6-foot-7 teammate Zion Blevins, who scored a game-high 19 factors within the title sport win over the Irish. That matched his season common of 19.7 factors per sport. He additionally averaged 10.7 boards, 2.8 blocks and three.4 assists a sport.

“Zion is a very talented kid. He’s just very gifted offensively and can play every position on the floor,” Napier mentioned. “Through his three years at Chapmanville so far, he’s played every position from center to point guard at various times. He can do it all. Sometimes Zion doesn’t know how good he can be. He’s just a very blessed and skilled guy with great size and strength. He’s everything you want out of a basketball player.”

Every member of the primary crew performed within the Class AA state match.

Bluefield juniors R.J. Hairston and Kam’Ron Gore made the second set of teammates to garner a nod on the primary crew after they guided the Beavers to a Class AA semifinal look, the place they misplaced a good sport to eventual champion Chapmanville.

Gore turned in averages of 13 factors, two assists and two steals a sport whereas capturing 39% from deep, whereas Hairston was a power on the within with 12 factors, 8.3 rebounds, two steals and 1.5 blocks an evening.

Charleston Catholic’s Jayallen Turner, who helped information the Irish to a runner-up end, was voted to the primary crew for the second straight season. The 6-foot-4 junior completed the 12 months with averages of 20 factors, 7.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists and two steals a sport.

Ravenswood senior Matt Carte and South Harrison senior Corey Boulden additionally each garnered a first-team nod for the second straight season.

Carte averaged 22.4 factors, 7.7 rebounds, 5.1 assists and two steals a sport and led the Red Devils to the Class AA quarterfinals, whereas Boulden additionally guided the Hawks to the quarterfinals and completed with 23.6 factors per contest.

Six-foot-5 Williamstown senior Alex Irvin rounds out the primary crew after he averaged 16 factors, 4.1 rebounds, 1.5 steals and one block per sport for the Yellowjackets. He helped information Williamstown to a 25-0 begin to the season earlier than they had been defeated by Charleston Catholic in an thrilling semifinal sport.