Petoskey's Trudeau erupts in final season for POY honor

PETOSKEY — Perhaps no area team entered the 2022-23 boys basketball season with larger question marks than Petoskey.

The Northmen were returning just one player from the prior year with starting experience and had to replace two post players, both 6-foot-5 or taller.

But, it took just 32 minutes of basketball at the start of the season for questions to be put to rest for Petoskey.

The main reason: Cade Trudeau.

Petoskey’s 6-foot-7 senior wasted no time breaking onto the scene in 2022-23, scoring 19 points in a season-opening win over Brighton, then followed that up with 28 points in a victory over Grand Ledge less than 24 hours later.

Just a weekend of basketball into the season, it was clear there was another star in a Petoskey uniform and that was indeed Trudeau.

He finished the year averaging 19 points and 10 rebounds, though also took a liking to setting up his teammates and averaged 3.7 assists a game.

He was named All-Big North, Detroit Free Press All-State honorable mention and BCAM All-State honorable mention. Now, Trudeau can add Petoskey News-Review Player of the Year to his collection.

More: Mackinaw's Smith, Postula and Huffman earn three-way POY honor

View from behind the lens: 

After what Petoskey lost in 6-foot-7 Brady Ewing and 6-foot-5 Jace Copeland, I really didn’t know what was going to be left in Petoskey’s lineup.

Cade had spent much of his junior season on the bench with an injury and then was buried with those two seniors dominating.

Entering the year, I had heard from a lot of people how much work Cade put in through travel ball, though, so I was anxious to get a look.

It was instantly noticeable how much he evolved into a special player. His confidence just took off.

A lot of people probably saw Cade’s height on the roster and instantly thought of the average post player. But, his game was nothing like that.

I think he took a lot of teams and players off guard with his ability to grab a rebound and instantly run the fastbreak and take it the whole way. You just don’t come across 6-foot-7 players who do that at the high school level.

Against teams with posts that weren’t as mobile, Cade hung out at the 3-point line, draining shots with a pretty stroke.

The part of Cade’s game that impressed me the most – and the area we often talked about the most – was his ability to see the court and know when his teammates are in a better positon to score.

A player of Cade’s caliber, dishing the ball off to a teammate isn’t always their favorite part. But there were numerous occasions when Cade would feel the defense start to collapse and he’d already have his mind made up with who he was sending the ball to.

I’d often get a message after games from Cade asking, "Do you know how many assists I had?" I thought the pride he took in being more than a scorer, but also getting his teammates involved, was special.

There’s so much more that stood out in Cade’s season – notably his clutch performances – and I just hope he becomes an inspiration for others who didn’t see the court a whole lot in a prior season to just keep on working and competing.

Cade went from not even having a scoring average in previous years, to finishing ahead of some of the best in Northmen history for single-season scoring and a future college basketball player at Northwood University.

— News-Review Sports Editor, Drew Kochanny 

View from the bench: 

Cade comes from a family where they love sports and his dad was a very good basketball player. His dad invested a lot of time in Cade ever since he’s been young.

At the beginning of this year, Cade let me know, he said, “Hey coach, I used to play point guard.” During the summertime I pretty much like to see what kids can do and let them just play and he was handling the ball, pushing it pretty well on the fastbreak and he’d make great decisions on the open court.

I thought he just got really tough attacking the basket over the course of the last two years. You could see it happening as a junior.

The summer before his junior year and entering that junior season he played in the first five games, was progressing really nicely, then he was out for 12 games with an injury. By the time he came back we were settling into our roles, but he still finished out the year.

I said at the banquet after his junior year, ‘Watch out, Cade Trudeau could have a really good senior year.’

He played travel basketball last spring and he was just in the gym a lot. He’s a gym rat and loves getting in there, getting shots up. He’s just got a good knack for the game and he’s a really good teammate, that’s the main thing.

He’s great with the younger kids that are coming up. When we do camps, everyone loves Cade. He’s loose, he’s open, he’s got a really good sense of humor.

It was really fun coaching him this year. I thought he really took on a leadership role and did a nice job for us.

— Petoskey boys’ basketball coach, Matt Tamm 

2022-23 ALL-AREA BOYS BASKETBALL TEAMS 

FIRST TEAM

Alex Calcaterra, Sr. — Boyne City

BCAM and Free Press All-State. Averaged 19 pts., 3.2 ast., and 4.9 reb. Closed career with 950 pts. Will play at Michigan Tech.

Cade Trudeau, Sr. — Petoskey

Area POY. BCAM honorable mention. Free Press All-State. Averaged 19 pts., 10 reb. and 3.7 ast. Will play at Northwood.

Braeden Flynn, Fr. — Harbor Springs

Free Press All-State, BCAM honorable mention. Huge freshmen season with 19.5 ppg., 4.8 ast. and 2.1 steals. Set freshman scoring record for Harbor.

Shane Izzard, Jr. — Petoskey

All-BNC second team. Two-year starter for the Northmen. Averaged 11.8 pts. 2.6 ast. and 3.2 reb. Strong on-ball defender.

Joe Gaffney, Fr. — Charlevoix

BCAM honorable mention, All-LMC. Averaged 15 pts. as a freshman. Top 10 free throw shooter in the state at 85%. Shot 40% on 3pt.

Mason Wilcox, Sr. — Boyne City

BCAM honorable mention. Averaged 12.4 pts. 4.3 ast. and 3.7 reb. Shot 37% from three. Will play at Grand Rapids CC.

SECOND TEAM 

Jimmy Marshall, Jr. — Petoskey

All-BNC honorable mention. Returned to PHS and averaged 11.1 pts., 3.9 reb. and 1.5 ast.

Cooper Whipkey, Sr. — Mackinaw City

Made 93 3-pointers, 11th best in MHSAA single-season history. Averaged 16.2 pts., 3.1 steals and 2.8 ast.

Rider Bartel, Fr. — Harbor Springs

One of the top young players in the area. Started every game as a freshman. Multiple 20-point games. Big future ahead.

Jacob Johnson, Sr. — Boyne City

All-LMC. Enjoyed a breakout final season averaging 8.2 ppg, 4.4 reb. and 1.7 ast. as a post player.

Lars Huffman, Sr. — Mackinaw City

BCAM honorable mention. All-NLC. Averaged 11.8 pts., 5.4 ast. and 6.8 reb. Will compete at St. Norbert for track/XC.

Jack Neer, Sr. — Boyne City

Returned from injury and averaged 7.9 pts. 4.2 reb, 1.7 ast. and 1.3 steals. Will play football at Hillsdale.

THIRD TEAM 

David Chamberlin, Jr. — Harbor Light

All-NLC. Another consistent year. Averaged 13.4 pts., 8.0 reb. 3.0 ast.

Korbyn Russell, So. — East Jordan

All-LMC. Took a big jump in every area of game. Averaged 9.8 pts as a sophomore.

Jack Clancy, Sr. — Harbor Springs

Standout athlete and All-LMC selection. Consistent player for the Rams in final season and a tough driver.

Gavin Hewitt, Sr. — Boyne City

Got better and better as the season went on. Averaged 6.7 pts., 3.2 reb. and 1.2 ast.

Michael Squires, Sr. — Petoskey

Tough, do-all player for the Northmen in the paint. Averaged 5.4 pts. and 2.8 reb.

Troy Nickel, Jr. — Charlevoix

All-LMC. Averaged 7.5 pts. and became a solid distributer with 2.8 ast. a game.

HONORABLE MENTION 

Devon Olstrom, East Jordan; Landon Jakeway, Harbor Light; Lucas Bergstrom, Mackinaw City; Hudson Vollmer, Charlevoix; Christian Silveus, Alanson; Kirk Rose, Harbor Light; Ryan Pearl, Charlevoix; Eli Stone, East Jordan.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Petoskey's Trudeau erupts in final season for POY honor