5 way-too-early 2020-21 POY candidates from the 5A Front Range League

The 5A Front Range League will have a different look in 2020-21. Of course, different looks are no stranger to the mashup that are high school hallways. In the athletic wing, players come up in the ranks, they go out — but in the case of FRL basketball, the shakeup from this past winter to the outlook for next season feels a bit more like a jolt. Like … “Hey! Wake up! -- (Hey … please, stop it). Up top, Fairview, winners of three straight league titles, graduate the conference’s player of the year in [player_tooltip player_id="526680" first="Jalen" last="Page"] and will have a new coach after Patrick Burke stepped down after leading the Knights to the 5A Final Four. Boulder, just down of that at 11-1 in league, meanwhile, will push forward without its top three scorers from the winter as well as its coach, Riley Grabau, who took over as the director of recruiting at the University of Wyoming. But the 2020-21 season should be exciting, nonetheless. That’s why in this series we’re looking at potential player of the year candidates for leagues across Colorado. We’ll start with the FRL. Greysen Carter, 2021, SF, Fairview Carter’s mid-90s fastball isn’t the only thing that lights up the radar. Last year, the Vanderbilt baseball commit averaged 17.6 points on an impressive 58 percent clip. He transformed from a mostly perimeter threat as a sophomore to a do-it-all star in 19-20. He scored in the double digits in every game, including a season-high 35 in a dominant win over Chatfield. He also averaged 7.9 rebounds and shot 72 percent from the free throw line. He’s ranked as the 11th best junior in Colorado per Prep Hoops. [player_tooltip player_id="916961" first="Greg" last="Gerhardt"], 2021, C, Monarch Gerhardt is an impressive prospect. His 6-foot-10 stature alone is something colleges around the country will covet. But he’s more than that. An expert two-way player, he feasts near the rim, altering shots defensively, laying in easy looks on offense. Even at his size, he’s surprisingly agile and does a nice job spreading the floor. He also has a nice jump shot and has proven he can hit consistently from deep. He’s ranked 29th among juniors in the state by Prep Hoops. [player_tooltip player_id="770437" first="Colton" last="Gillingham"], 2021, G/F, Greeley West Gillingham led the league in scoring this past winter with 19.3 points per game. He’s a creative finisher at the basket and shot 46 percent from the field. He has a nice stroke from deep, too, shooting 43 percent from 3-point range. Greeley West went just 6-17 overall and won just one game in league, but Gillingham was special despite it. If he can get a bit more help elsewhere on the offensive end next winter, he may just explode as a senior. He’s ranked 44th among juniors in the state by Prep Hoops. [player_tooltip player_id="918906" first="Aidan" last="Kuhl"], 2022, SG, Rocky Mountain Kuhl crashed the scene as a sophomore, finishing second in scoring to Gillingham in league with 17.6 points per game. And maybe even more impressive than that was his postseason showing. An absolute terror on the big stage, he had 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting in an overtime win over Rock Canyon in the opening round of the 5A tournament. He then helped the Lobos go toe-to-toe with No. 6 Valor Christian in a four-point loss in the next round, scoring a game-high 23 while going 6 of 12 from deep. Next winter, he’ll be without the next three top scorers for the Lobos from 19-20, so it’ll be interesting to see how much more he’ll grow and where his production will go. Currently, Kuhl is ranked 23rd among sophomores in the state. [player_tooltip player_id="759290" first="Brock" last="Wisne"], 2022, PF, Horizon Wisne is already a star — a POY candidate isn’t a stretch. Soon enough the sophomore will be met with college offers. Accolades aplenty, too. In his second year, the 6-7 prospect averaged 16.2 points on 54 percent shooting to go along with 10 rebounds. Prep Hoops currently has Wisne ranked second among sophomores in Colorado. In a recent ranking story by PH, writer Duvalier Johnson said Wisne “not only a player with arguably the highest ceiling in the class, but he has the perfect bend of size and skill that gives him the advantage more often than not.”