West Iron County Sophomore Seth Oberlin Earns All-U.P. Basketball Special Mention

A season after scoring 14 points as a freshman to lift the Wykons past Gwinn 43-42 in a West PAC contest at Charles Greenlund Gymnasium, Seth Oberlin has earned recognition that extends well past Iron River.

The Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association named the 6-foot-6 West Iron County sophomore to its Special Mention team on the 2025-26 All-U.P. boys basketball awards list, released Friday. Oberlin was one of only five players selected for Special Mention U.P.-wide, joining Alex Hebert of Houghton, Hayven Sandoval-Nolde of Escanaba, Peter Torola of Calumet, and Talan Woods of Menominee. The other four are juniors; Oberlin is the only sophomore on that tier of the list.

The All-U.P. nod came on top of a WestPAC Copper Division first-team selection, with West Iron junior Jessiah Smith also earning honorable mention in that conference release. Two regional honors in the same spring underscores what those who followed the Wykons this winter already knew: Oberlin is the program's most visible piece.

The UPSSA compiles its awards through a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters who weigh regular-season records, district and regional tournament play, and state-level results, making the Special Mention list one of the more competitive and credible benchmarks in U.P. high school basketball. The full 2025-26 release was headlined by Westwood senior Ethan Marta, who claimed both Mr. Basketball and the Division 1-3 Player of the Year award. Dollar Bay senior Liam Tourtillott took Division 4 Player of the Year. Coaches Sam Larson of Menominee and Jesse Kentala of Dollar Bay were named divisional coaches of the year. Oberlin's placement on the same document, as a sophomore, is the detail that will travel farthest.

For a West Iron County program that plays in a conference with Westwood, the school that produced the U.P.'s top individual honoree this year, landing a player on the statewide list carries concrete value. College coaches running evaluation lists begin building files on prospects as early as the sophomore year, and a UPSSA Special Mention in a player's profile is the kind of entry that opens doors to summer camp invitations and early recruiting correspondence that smaller Iron County programs rarely generate on their own.

Oberlin entered the Wykons' lineup as a freshman filling a starting role vacated by his older brother Elijah, and he handled that transition with the composure of an upperclassman. With two full seasons of eligibility remaining, the benchmark he set this spring gives every younger athlete coming through Iron River's gymnasium a clear target: get in the gym, get noticed in conference play, and let the U.P.-wide hardware follow.