The Associated Press announced their postseason awards today for boys Division 1 basketball, and a trio of their awards are coming to Grand Blanc.
Headlining the list of honorees was junior Ty Rodgers, who was named Division 1 Player of the Year in the state of Michigan. The 6'7" wing averaged 17.3 points and 9.4 rebounds, leading the state champion Bobcats in both categories this season. Rodgers
shot an phenomenal 62.0% from the field, due in part to the fact that so many of his baskets
come on highligh-reel slams. He threw down 46 dunks in the Bobcats’ 17 contests, and had a streak dating back to last season of 21 consecutive games with at least one slam dunk. Rodgers currently holds offers from 14 Division 1 schools: Michigan,
Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue, Maryland, Houston, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Florida
State, Louisville, Syracuse, Marquette, Temple and Rhode Island, with more to come, no doubt!
Here are his season highlights.
Also garnering First Team All-Sate honors was RJ Taylor. The sophomore point guard averaged 16.7 points per game, leading the Bobcats in scoring in
eight of their ten regular season contests. He tallied 25+ points on three
occasions, including a career-high of 31. Where he really shines though is as a playmaker. Averaging 6.8 assists per game this year, he just may be the best passer in the state. While being the engine that set the pace for Grand Blanc's high-octane offense, Taylor only turned the ball over 34 times all season long, despite leading the Bobcats in minutes played for the second straight campaign. 
Head Coach Mike Thomas also received honors as the Division 1 Coach of the Year after leading Grand Blanc to the first basketball state championship in school history. COVID-19
caused a delayed start to the season, a two-week mid-season quarantine,
and a number of cancelled games. With Coach Thomas at the helm though,
the Bobcats navigated these and other difficulties to put together a
very successful (though shortened) regular season, topped off by an
extraordinary post-season run, in which they beat the two top-ranked
teams in the state, each of which were riding 27-game winning streaks.
It was the third state championship of in Coach Thomas's career, the first two coming during his tenure at Kalamazoo Central. In 2010, both
the Detroit Free Press and the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan named
him their Michigan High School Coach of the Year.
