LAKE COUNTY >> Ask coaches about the Kelseyville High School varsity boys’ basketball team and the first two words you’ll usually hear are “Kyle Ellis.”
As in Kyle Ellis, sophomore forward for the Knights who also started as a freshman. As in Kyle Ellis, who averaged 14.2 points for Kelseyville during the 2014-15 season even though the Knights’ offense doesn’t run through him. As in Kyle Ellis, the first sophomore to be named the most valuable player on the All-Lake County boys’ basketball team as selected by the Lake County Record-Bee.
Ellis, a solid all-around player for coach Scott Conrad’s club, is one of two Kelseyville players on the All-County first team and one of four overall.
“How many sophomores have been MVP?” Conrad inquired. “That’s pretty rare, isn’t it? The answers are one — Ellis being the first — and yes.
A threat to break 1,000 career points sometime next season, Ellis also garnered All-North Central League I first-team honors while helping the Knights go 10-4 in league (they tied Willits for second). Kelseyville reached the North Coast Section Division IV playoffs and lost in the first round to Salesian.
While a handful of Ellis’ teammates graduate in just a couple of months, Conrad will be inheriting a junior varsity squad that tied for the league title last season, so the Knights figure to remain competitive in the NCL I in the coming seasons.
Joining MVP Ellis on the first team are four seniors as well as one freshman of note, Lower Lake’s Hokulani Wickard, who scored 336 points in his first varsity season, a county record. The seniors are Jared Strate of Clear Lake, Brandon Huber of Kelseyville and the Middletown duo of Anthonie Guzman and Cody Chorjel. Strate won the Lake County scoring title in 2014-15 with a county-best 424 points and 15.7 average. He also sank more 3-pointers (64) than anyone else. Huber made 57 3-point field goals while averaging 11.6 points a game. Only Ellis had better numbers for the Knights. Chorjel (14.1) and Guzman (13.4) were Middletown’s top scorers and players.
The six players named to the All-County second team also made significant contributions to their respective squads this past season. They are Victor Fernandez of Kelseyville, Ryan Smith and Stevie Diaz of Clear Lake, Von Self of Middletown, and James Clark and Dustin Martin of Lower Lake. All are seniors execpt the junior Diaz.
Conrad, himself a four-year varsity standout at Kelseyville in the 1980s and the county’s all-time career scoring leader for boys at 1,717 points, is the Coach of the Year for leading the Knights to an 18-win season and a runner-up league finish.
