Arlington's Willow, Van Buren's Bunn earn top honors in BVC

FINDLAY – Arlington's Calvin Willow was named player of the year and Van Buren's Mark Bunn took home coach of the year honors in the Blanchard Valley Conference all-league selections for the 2025-26 boys basketball season.A6-foot-10 senior center, Willow averaged 18.8 points and 7.5 rebounds for an Arlington team that went 19-3 in the regular season and finished a close second (9-1) to Van Buren (10-0) in the BVC standings. Also first-team District 8 and first team all-Northwest Ohio, Willow also averaged 3.5 assists and led the league with 82 blocked shots.Bunn guided a deep and balanced Van Buren team to its first BVC title since 2018. The Black Knights went unbeaten in league play, and highlighted an 18-win regular season with a 17-game winning streak.Two of the key contributors to Van Buren's success – seniors Cole Bishop and Will Rampe – were first-team picks. Cole, a 5-10 guard, averaged 8.8 point, 3.2 rebounds and 2.4 steals; Rampe, a 6-3 center, averaged 9.7 points and 6.2 rebounds.Rounding out the 11-man first team are Arlington's Ayden Cavine (14 ppg, 52 3-pointers), Arcadia's Isaac Stoner, the BVC's leading scorer at 19.5 points a game, 6-6 Liberty-Benton wing Lincoln Holler, who was among the league leaders in scoring (18.7 ppg), rebounding (6.4 rpg) and assists (3.3 apg), Ada senior Zack Zimmerman (14.5 ppg), McComb sophomore Luke Kern (17 ppg, 8 rpg), Elmwood's Owen Traxler (14.5 ppg, 4.7 apg), Pandora-Gilboa's Cam Verhoff (13.1 ppg) and Vanlue's Owen Roszman (16.3 ppg, 5.6 rpg).Van Buren's Alex Homan and Finn Martin were second-team all-BVC, along with Arlington's Trenton Heacock, Ada's Carson Conley and Kayleb Hickman, Arcadia's Grady Bronston and Tripp Brubaker, Liberty-Benton's Reid Irwin, Riverdale's Grant Inbody and Elmwood's Landry Seedorf. 2025-26 ALL-BVCFIRST TEAMCalvin Willow, Arlington, sr.; Isaac Stoner, Arcadia, sr; Lincoln Holler, Liberty-Benton, sr.; Zack Zimmerman, Ada, sr.; Luke Kern, McComb, soph,; Ayden Cavinee, Arlington, sr.; Cole Bishop, Van Buren, sr.; Owen Traxler, Elmwood, jr.; Camden Verhoff, Pandora-Gilboa; Owen Roszman, Vanlue, sr.; Will Rampe, Van Buren, sr.PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Calvin Willow, Arlington.COACH OF THE YEAR: Mark Bunn, Van Buren. SECOND TEAMCarson Conley, Ada, jr.; Tenton Heacock, Arlington, sr.; Grady Bronston, Arcadia, jr.; Tripp Brubaker, Arcadia, soph; Reid Irwin, Liberty-Benton, sr.; Kayleb Hickman, Ada, sr.; Alex Homan, Van Buren; Finn Martin, Van Buren, sr.; Landry Seedorf, Elmwood, sr.; Grant Inbody, Riverdale. HONORABLE MENTIONADA – Gavin Oldfield, Blake Zoladz. ARCADIA – Owen Green, Blayne Colman. ARLINGTON – Drew Metzger, Hunter Rausch. ELMWOOD – Kason Hammer, AveryPlouck. LEIPSIC – Calvin Miller, Kash Walther. LIBERTY-BENTON – Brody Thomas, Taden Troyer. McCOMB – Grady Schroeder, Casen Stateler. PANDORA-GILBOA – Cory Gerten, Chase Meyer. RIVERDALE –Grady Haley, Hayden Scott. VAN BUREN – Brady Lance, Anakin Ortega. VANLUE – Laine Saltzman, Brady Hamilton.