LAKE COUNTY — Even with a heavily taped wrist, Middletown High School senior Brody Breeden never shied away from contact while helping lead the Mustangs to a share of the North Central League I varsity boys basketball championship and a 20-win season in 2021-22.
Breeden, a senior who always came ready to play and never disappointed, is the most valuable player on the 2022 All-County team as selected by the Lake County Record-Bee.
“No. 1 and foremost is that he’s a team guy,” Middletown head coach G.J. Rockwell said of Breeden. “In any program what a coach needs and wants is that kind of player.”
Toughness, both mental and physical, is another box Breeden checked off during Middletown’s 20-4 campaign.
“He had a really bad wrist injury right before our Cloverdale game at home,” Rockwell said. “We almost won the game and he had 11 points playing with one hand. The kid was in tears in the locker room after the game and not because of the loss (Cloverdale rallied from a 45-42 deficit to win 49-45), but because of the pain he was in. But he did not and would not take a seat (during the game).”
Middletown evened the score against Cloverdale in the final league meeting between the two league co-champs at Cloverdale, Breeden tossing in a team-best 19 points in a 55-53 win.
“The roster says he’s 6-foot-0, but is he? No, but he was banging with the biggest guys all season. He scored 16 points in our playoff game (63-33 Division 4 sectional loss to Stuart Hall, which went on to win the Division 5 state championship) going up against two of their bigs.”
Added Rockwell of Breeden’s MVP credentials this season, “He was always there, always working hard. He was going to grind it out for us no matter what and do what he needed to do to get the job done.”
First team
Among county players earning first-team honors are two of Breeden’s senior teammates, Cole Ketchum and Luke Hoogendoorn. They are joined by Clear Lake’s Ethan Maize and Zane Robinson, who helped Clear Lake finish third in the league standings, Kelseyville’s Luke Watkins, the only junior named to the first team, and Upper Lake senior Kai Young.
Second team
Each of the county’s five schools had one player honored on the second team. They are Lucas DaCosta, senior, of Middletown; Clear Lake’s Jack Daskam, senior, of Clear Lake; Kelseyville’s Jake Keithly, senior; Lower Lake’s Marquis Jones, senior; and Upper Lake’s Sammy Avalos, junior.
Coach of the year
The Middletown Mustangs went 12-1 in league and 20-4 overall in large part because of Rockwell and his staff, including brother Brady Rockwell. They added another pennant to the Tallman Gym ceiling despite not having a pure shooter this season, but their overall team defense was excellent and contributions from many players during the course of the 2021-22 campaign, both starters and reserves alike, provided enough offense for the Mustangs to earn a league split with a very good Cloverdale team that went 26-3 overall and reached the semifinals of the NorCal Division 5 playoffs.
