Gyorko earns spot on Class AAA All-State team
Adams, Lewis on second team

BY BOB HERTZEL The Dominion Post
There are those who believe this year’s boys Class AAA All-State team picked by the West Virginia Sportswriters Association is one for the ages and that’s just fine with University High’s Jedd Gyorko, who Sunday learned he was a member of that team.
“It’s a great honor,” the UHS senior who averaged 18.2 points a game said. “When you have players like (2007 Bill Evans Award winner) O.J. Mayo and (2006 winner) Patrick Patterson it’s something else to be part of that.”
Indeed it is.
Mayo is considered the best player to play in the state since Jerry West and was the focal point of a Huntington High team that many believe was the best ever assembled in West Virginia, certainly the best since NFL star Randy Moss and NBA player Jason Williams led DuPont to a state championship.
No fewer than four Huntington starters were named to this year’s All-State team, led by Mayo, who averaged 28.2 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game as Huntington won an unprecedented third straight state title.
Mayo will attend USC next season. Six Huntington High players will play Division I basketball next year.
Joining him on the All-State team were the 6-8 Patterson, the state’s top big man who is expected to select a college this week with West Virginia still in the running, Mike Taylor and Jamaal Williams. Huntington forward Chris Early was a second team selection and forward Bruce Senior made the third team.
Patterson averaged 17.2 points, 11.9 rebounds and 4.2 blocks per game and will play at Duke, Florida, Kentucky, Virginia, Wake Forest or West Virginia next season.
Both he and Mayo are Parade and McDonald’s All-Americans.
Jefferson junior forward Vance Hosby, Bridgeport junior forward Bryant Irwin and Nitro junior guard Brett McClanahan and Gyorko rounded out the first team.
Gyorko was on the second team as a junior and averaged 18.2 points a game as a senior.
A two-sport star, Gyorko is also an All-State baseball player and will play baseball at West Virginia University.
“Jedd helped all our players,” said UHS Coach Bruce Clinton. “He was a team player, a coach on the floor who saw things we sometimes couldn’t see from the bench.”
McClanahan averaged 23.3 points per game and made 64 three-pointers on the season. He had a singlegame high of 47 points, just one point shy of Mayo’s 48-point stateleading performance against St. Patrick on Feb. 22.
Hosby averaged 20 points, 13 rebounds and five blocked shots per game and led Jefferson to the state tournament, where the Cougars lost to Irwin and Bridgeport in the first round. Irwin averaged 24.4 points and 9.5 rebounds before the Indians lost 98-59 to Huntington in the Class AAA state semifinals.
Making the second team from the area were Morgantown High’s J.T. Lewis and Preston’s Josh Adams.
“In all the years I knew him he has shown me one thing. He loves to play. He’s like a kid in a candy store when he’s out there. You see it in the movement, the motion and the energy,” MHS coach Tom Yester said.
Lewis averaged 11.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists for the Mohigans.
“Josh is a great kid with great desire,” said the Knights’ coach Barry Sanders. “He always kept everyone up on the floor. Against Fairmont Senior in the regional he scored 30 points and got nine rebounds.”
Adams averaged 15 points and 8.2 rebounds a game.
Hedgesville’s Michael Lopez was a repeat second team selection and the captain of the second team. The second team was rounded out by Adams and Lewis, Princeton senior Jevon Carpenter, South Charleston senior Ricky Dunham and Parkersburg South senior Will Richardson.
Robert C. Byrd junior Steven Collins was the third team captain and joined by Wheeling Park senior Chie Bryan, South Charleston sophomore Aaron Dobson, Bridgeport senior Tom Izzo, Beckley Woodrow Wilson junior Travis Parkulo, George Washington senior Cameron Payne and Martinsburg senior Isaac Thornton.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.0

J.T. Lewis

Josh Adams

Jedd Gyorko