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Show Clipper's All-Davis County Team J GARY WAS A main cog in the state title the Braves won a year ago and he was a big factor in their second place effort this season. He likes the outside game, and he's good at it. Gary has a great shooting eye and touch from 18 feet on in, and he handles the ball well. Nevada-Reno has shown some interest in Gary along with all the junior colleges in the area. Right now though he has a busy schedule with all star games. Gary is slated to play in the 4A-3 A all-star battle in a couple of weeks and then he'll play for the Utah team in the BCI senior tournament in Phoenix later this month. BLAKE IZATT The second Brave on the squad is guard Blake Izatt who has been a starter at Bountiful all three years he attended. For his senior year Blake averaged 10.9 points and dished out a team high 126 assists, which averages out to just over five per game. BI.AKK IS extremely quick and handles the ball well but he earned his reputation in the state tournament with his long range shooting. He lit up the scoreboard with some long shots on opening night and just continued to do the same thing right through the entire tournament. His efforts didn't go unnoticed either as he was selected to play in the 4A-3A all-star game at Hillcrest in a couple of weeks and the junior college coaches are knocking on his door. Blake hasn't made a decision on where to play next year but he'll play somewhere. STEVE HIBBERT The third choice from Bountiful is 6'7" Steve Hibbert who his own coach calls one of the most improved players he's had at Bountiful. Indeed the improvement Steve showed from his sophomore year until now has been terrific. ON THE YEAR Steve averaged 13 points an outing, pulled down an average of seven rebounds per outing and led the Braves in field goal percentage hitting on 52 percent of his attempted shots. Hibbert is just a great example of hard work and dedication, he's put in the time and effort and his accomplishments speak for themselves. As a sophomore not many high school coaches wanted him but now several junior college coaches are after him for next year with CEU, Snow and Utah Technical Tech-nical College heading the list. KEVIN SMITH Viewmont's contribution to this year's club is senior Kevin Smith, who was also selected All-County in football. Kevin was the bright spot for the Vikes this past season averaging 18 points per game and 8 rebounds. TIME AFTER time opposing coaches noted that Smith of the Vikes was one of the premiere players in the region, and he was. Kevin has tremendous jumping ability and a fine shooting touch. He can play under the basket knocking heads with the big people or he can play the outside forward spot hitting from medium range. As of now no one has approached Kevin about basketball, maybe they know that several college col-lege football programs are still trying to get him. BRAD MERRILL Any coach likes a player that plays with guts and not his mouth. That happened to fit the role of Layton's Brad Merrill perfectly. IT WAS A superb state tournament performance by Merrill that helped Layton to three consecutive tourney victories ahd the right to take home the 1983 consolation championship trophy. On offense Merrill usually maintained a solid 10-point average aver-age and usually got his two or three assists per game too, but it was on defense that had his coach and talking. "WE ALWAYS give Merrill the toughest defensive assignment," assign-ment," said Doug Moon, the coach "and he always came through." Take for instance Layton's two meetings against Roy's Reid Newey. Newey was averaging 30 points per game prior to those games but it was Merrill that frustrated the talented Royal and both times prevented him from reaching his average. av-erage. MERRILL was also extremely valuable in the Lancer's rebounding scheme. Brad averaged at least 7.5 rebounds per game. JEFF MOON It was just a plain 'gut it up effort' by Layton's Jeff Moon that enabled the Lancers to make the state playoffs and excell all the way to the consolation championship of the 1983 state playoffs. MOON HAD averaged a mere 10 or 11 points per game before the team's top scorer, Keith Williams, left the club. After the departure, Moon simply took over and averaged 16 to 17 points per contest and more importantly became the cohesive piece that kept things together. Moon had a brilliant state tournament, averaging 17 points per game including a 22-point performance against Skyline. Moon also averaged 4 assists per game and at least 4 rebounds per game. "IT WAS JEFF'S playmaking ability that kept the ballclub together," said Jeffs father, the coach, "We needed somebody some-body like him to pick up when Keith left. He surpassed even the wildest of our expectations." RYAN SMITH What could be more fitting than to have Davis' Ryan Smith named to the first team parade of all-stars of the Davis County high school basketball players. SMITH, THE only junior to be named to the first team ; representative of what was a young and truly inexperienced Davis High team. Smith was a solid link in the Dart's attack all year. The 5-10, 160-pound guard ended up as the leading and mosl consistent scorer for Mike Gardner's squad all year. Besides 3AV that, his defense wasn't all the bad either. WHEN STACKING up genuine basketball talent, don't bet on Smith being very close to the top when talking about thi all-star team. But it's nearly for sure that no one would count'9' out Smith when it comes to "true grit' and 'determined15' hustle." jg Smith will be back for another year to help Gardner try t bring Davis basketball back into the playoff picture. MARK WILSON $ jjati Without any question, Clearfield's sharp-shooting and de- 'illel fensive-minded Mark Wilson was a clear-cut selection to the ,ee 1983 Davis County All-Star gathering. .;re WILSON BEGAN the 1982-83 season in very admirable " 10 fashion, in fact so impressive that his coach, Craig Hansen fu called Wilson's efforts "one of the finest starts ever for a Clearfield guard." Wilson easily was scoring over 20 points itSE per game in the early going and posted a 35 point outburst against Weber in Clearfield's first league game. For the sea- son, Wilson averaged just over 16 points per game. iair Wilson's freethrow accuracy was worth mention. His un- "''"cl canny ability at hitting the foul shots was a key in Clearfield's 10,1 attack all season. During the first Weber game, Wilson hit on 17 of 18 from the line. jitl 'k WILSON, A senior, was the sparkplug of the Falcon ?ar offense through most of the year. Though the team won only ;ume one league game, Wilson summed it up best, "We were the :'c0 best 1-9 team in the state." air her |