Humboldt Sports Names Finalists for Boys Basketball Player, Coach, Team of Year
Six of seven player-of-the-year finalists come from just three schools, and the Eureka Loggers are the only NCS champions the H-DNL produced this season.
Three Humboldt County boys basketball programs dominated this winter so thoroughly that HumboldtSports named all three of their coaches as finalists for Coach of the Year, and six of the seven players nominated for Player of the Year wore their jerseys.
The Eureka Loggers claimed the program's first-ever section championship, beating Sonoma Academy 58-52 to win the North Coast Section Division 5 crown. That title made the Loggers the only NCS champions the Humboldt-Del Norte League produced in 2025-26, a distinction that puts head coach Jimmy Rodgers squarely in the Coach of the Year conversation. HumboldtSports described this winter as "his best season in charge of the Loggers."
Rodgers is joined in the Coach of the Year field by Chris Davis of McKinleyville and Pat Shanahan of St. Bernard's. Davis, in his third year running the Panthers, "has built a consistent Big 5 contender" in McKinleyville. Shanahan's case may be the most striking of the three: in his first year as head coach, he led the Crusaders to 24 wins.
The player finalists tell the same story of concentration at the top. McKinleyville senior Henry Turner IV, the Big 5 MVP, averaged 14.5 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. St. Bernard's junior Garrett Shanahan, son of the first-year coach, drew perhaps the boldest assessment on the entire finalists list: HumboldtSports called him the player who "could be the best all-around player in the H-DNL." The full field of seven nominees includes six players from McKinleyville, Eureka, and St. Bernard's combined, with Arcata senior Luke Lemke rounding out the group after what HumboldtSports called "another outstanding season for the multi-sport senior."
McKinleyville's strong finish to the season drew its own line of notice. "The Panthers saved their best for last," HumboldtSports wrote, a nod to a program that peaked at the right time under Davis.
Two Del Norte players came close to cracking the finalist pool. Junior Damian Escalera and sophomore Ty Blue "barely missed out on inclusion on the prestigious list of finalists," HumboldtSports noted, adding that observers "don't be surprised to see both of them front and center next year." Both are underclassmen, giving Del Norte a credible core heading into next season.
Winners in all three categories will be announced at a later date.
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