The 2023-24 Unsung Heroes: Wayne/Holmes boys hoops players who make winning plays

It's almost impossible for a great basketball team to exist without a star player. Probably more than one.

And while those players who put up big numbers obviously make a huge impact, others make a difference in ways that typically don't show up on the stat sheet. These are the players who can turn a good team into a great team or a great team into a championship team.

They help a team do what's most important — win.

The 2023-24 Unsung Heroes: Wayne/Holmes girls hoops players who make winning plays

These are the 2023-24 Unsung Heroes:

Trey Bayless, Norwayne

Selfishness isn't an option at Norwayne this year.

The way the Bobcats play, individual scoring numbers don't matter. The ball doesn't stick in one place too long and Norwayne scores after wearing its opponent down with enough movement, or it simply overwhelms them on the other end with a barrage of energetic, pesky defenders.

Senior forward Trey Bayless epitomizes the selfless style of play that has helped the Bobcats thrive.

"He does all the things that don't show up on the stat sheet that every coach loves to have on their team and teammates love to play with," Norwayne coach Brian West said. "He's a good teammate. He plays hard. At the end of the day, he just wants to win."

That desire to win has helped Norwayne to the first undefeated WCAL season since 2008-09 and a fifth straight 20-win season. He probably isn't going to make the "wow" plays. But he's going to cut to the basket for easy layups. He's going to guard any position on the floor with an ease few players possess. He's going to help Norwayne win.

"Coaches use this term a lot but you really consider him a Swiss Army Knife," West said. "He's often guarding players one-through-five on the floor. He's often guarding the other team's best post player. He's not a kid who gets hung up on the stats like a lot of kids these days. He doesn't care who scores."

Part of what makes Bayless such a valuable piece for the Bobcats — he's one of three players who've started the past two seasons, along with Parker Metsker and Braden West — is playing within himself. And that's enough on a team that has options all over the floor.

"He makes the right play at the right time all the time," West said.

Connor Beachy, Hiland

Hiland entered the season with fresh new jerseys.

After just a few games, Beachy showed Hiland coach Mark Schlabach his uniform. There were already holes in Beachy's jersey from diving on the floor and playing his extra physical brand of basketball. Schlabach wasn't surprised at all.

"That just exemplifies Connor and the way he plays," Schlabach said. "For two years, he's guarded the other team's best player every night. ... He's one of my favorite Hiland Hawks of all time because of the way he plays — the effort and doing all the little things that help you win that don't show up on the stat sheet every night."

While it can be difficult for some players to buy into a role that means limited offensive touches, Beachy has embraced it his entire high school career.

"He's the kind of kid who always understood what his role was and would just do whatever he could to help the team win," Schlabach said. "Even though his role has expanded some as he's gotten older at the offensive end, he's still a defense-first guy. He's even taken that to an extreme, being super proud of being the guy that we're going to have guard the other team's best player. You just know whoever he's guarding is going to have a tough night."

Unfortunately for the Hawks, Beachy suffered a broken leg late in the regular season, leaving them without one of the players who is the heart-and-soul of the team.

If Hiland makes it far enough in the tournament, there's a small chance Beachy could return to the court, doing all those little things to make Hiland better. If anyone is going to try to get back as soon as possible, it's Beachy.

"He's one of the toughest kids we've ever had here at Hiland, there's no doubt about it," said Schlabach, who is in his 19th year as Hawks head coach.

Cale Drown, Triway

Sometimes having winning players isn't all about what they do on the court.

Triway coach Ben Holt lauds Drown's off-the-court character more than anything he does on the floor for the Titans — and not because Drown isn't valuable to the Titans as a player.

"He's a great young man," Holt said. "He comes from a great family, where he's held accountable and has values and morals. And that's huge when it comes to sports."

Not only has Drown shown perseverance to come back from injuries as both a junior and senior, but he's also the type of player that looks out for his teammates. If someone doesn't have a car and needs to get home after practice, Drown will give them a ride. If teammate forgets cash while they're out to eat, Drown will cover them.

Drown's leadership off the court has helped bring Triway together as a cohesive unit. Even with a lot of younger players on the roster, Triway plays with the maturity of a much older team.

Some of that has to do with Drown learning the hard way how to see the game as coach. A knee injury kept him from playing almost all of his junior season and a broken hand kept him out for a stretch this year. While that would have kept some players down, Drown found ways to make it into a positive.

"He's never wavered," Holt said. "The importance of being a leader and growing even when you're not playing has been huge for him. It's been huge for us to see him take on that role from the sideline as like a coach, getting to see things from the eyes of the coaches."

Of course, that doesn't mean he was just sitting back and watching. Drown did everything he could to get back on the floor as soon as possible.

"He was there, trying to do as much as he could," Holt said. "...We had to tell him, 'No, you can't do this. Come down and get your cardio in on the side but you can't jump into drills. I don't know how many times I had to say, 'Hey, Cale, not this time, buddy.'"

On the court, Drown's 3-point shooting makes Triway even tougher to guard, with players like Brayden Holt, Drew Bishko and Bruin Flinner able to score in a variety of ways. Drown — the Titans' fourth-leading scorer at 10.8 points per game — can get hot from 3 and bury an opponent, even if they shut down one of the other three.

"I'm very proud of him and excited for him for what his senior year has been," Holt said.

Jack Fickes, Hillsdale

Watching Fickes play basketball, it seems impossible he wasn't Hillsdale's varsity point guard before his senior season.

Braylen Jarvis had always taken on the point guard role, and there was no reason to believe that would be any different as Fickes and Jarvis entered their senior seasons. But first-year head coach Ben Ferguson saw the Falcons' potential with Fickes running the point and Jarvis playing more off the ball, still in a featured role.

"Both of those guys and half the community thought I was crazy," Ferguson said. "It's always been one of those things where Braylen is the point guard and should be the point guard. They both bought in, and we had a wonderful summer.

"The conversations I had with Jack were, 'You have to be our floor leader. You have to be the general out there. Jack really doubled down and that and has done phenomenal."

Fickes has thrived in the role, embracing the idea of being a pass-first point guard to the extreme. With an assist-to-turnover ratio of almost 4-to-1, Fickes does what every coach wants from their point guard — setting up the offense while rarely turning the ball over.

"Jack has really been the coach on the floor," Ferguson said. "He has facilitated better than most point guards I've seen who've done this for years. On top of that, he gets 5.5 rebounds per game from the point guard position. He's just an all-around great hard-nose player. He really makes our team go."

All of that has helped lead Hillsdale to its best season in years, 17 wins and counting and a real chance at stringing together some playoff wins.

Sammy Tomlinson, Dalton

On a team with plenty of long, athletic players, Tomlinson may go unnoticed in the layup lines before Dalton games.

But once play begins, it's impossible not to notice him. The junior guard flies around the court, bringing a level of speed and energy that ignites Dalton on both ends, even when it doesn't show up in the stat sheet.

The things Tomlinson does best — picking up players full court defensively and collapsing the defense on drives offensively — don't typically lead to steals or his own points. But they do lead to Dalton wins.

Tomlinson's on-ball defense is probably the biggest difference-maker for the 'Dawgs. He makes it a chore or whoever he's defending to go anywhere with the ball.

"He pressures them, he makes them feel uncomfortable, if he's not causing a deflection himself, he's causing errant passes where other people can get a hand on them," Dalton coach Cody Huth said.

The 5-foot-8 Tomlinson is typically one of the smallest players on the court but makes up for that with constant energy and physicality.

"He always brings the energy," Huth said. "We know what we're going to get from Sammy. He never takes a day off. He's always the hardest worker in the weight room and a hard worker on the floor as well."

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Boys Hoops: the 2023-24 Wayne/Holmes Unsung Heroes