Published: April 12, 2009 12:02 am      

Wormack AMAC’s Player of Year

Allegany sophomore one of four underclassmen on first team

CUMBERLAND — A “youth movement” has found it’s way into the Appalachian Mountain Athletic Conference with Allegany sophomore Player of Year Leah Wormack leading one of three 10th-graders given first team honors on the All-Conference squad.

Wormack was joined by fellow sophomores Kaitlynn Fratz from Northern and Madi Nightengale from Mountain Ridge, and Southern junior Emillee Bosley as underclassmen made up a majority of this year’s first team.

The three seniors on the team were not lacking any clout, with reigning AMAC and Times-News Player of the Year DeTonia DeGross joining her teammate Wormack. The Rams made it three players on the first-team with the addition of seniors Shayna Sweitzer and Torie Bosley.

Fort Hill and Frankfort both sent two players to the second teams. Sophomore Andrea Armstrong and senior Lindsey Fisher were honored from the Sentinels, while Aira Whiteman and Diane Dayton, both seniors, played for the Falcons.

Allegany senior Jenna Mathews and Danielle McGinnis, a Mountain Ridge senior, flushed out the second team.

Cali Alkire (Hampshire), Julia Ludwick (Keyser), Mariah Miller (Frankfort) and Megan Wiley (Northern) were honorable mention.

The Campers won the league with a 13-1 record, making it the only school to have won the two-year old league. Northern finished the season with a 11-3 record and a second-place finish, and Southern finished three games back of the Campers at 10-4 and in third place. Frankfort (8-6) and Mountain Ridge (7-7) rounded out the top five.

• Wormack, at 6-foot-1, owned the inside against most of the opponents put against her. She led the Campers in scoring and rebounding, and was the second leading scorer in the AMAC with an average of 15.1 points a game.

She was the only player in the conference to make more than 50 percent of her shots, clocking in at a remarkable 65.2 field goal percentage. Her 8.5 rebounds per game were good for second in the league.

She was also a 60-percent shooter from the free throw line, and averaged 3.5 blocks.

• DeGross finished as the seventh leading scorer in the conference, but was one of the league’s most respected players with the ability to do a little of everything.

While averaging 11.6 points a game and shooting 47.2 percent from the floor, she led the league with 4.5 steals per night and was second in assists with an average of 4.1.

She closes her career at Allegany as an area player of the year and conference player of the year as well as a member of teams that won the City, AMAC, Maryland 1A West Section and West Region titles in each of the past two seasons.

• Sophomore Fratz earned her way back onto the all-conference team by posting a league-high 19.2 point average. That was two points a game better than the player in second, and is the second straight year she held the scoring crown after averaging 17.5 points a game.

Fratz hit 48 percent of her shots, and shot at a 35% clip from outside the three-point line. She finished the season making 74% of her free throws, and averaged 3.0 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 3.7 steals a game.

She scored the last five points of the game in leading Northern to a 53-50 win over Allegany early in the season. Her two free throws with eight seconds remaining helped the Huskies hand the Campers their only conference loss.

• Sweitzer, another repeat selection, was Southern’s leading scorer with an average of 17.2 points a game, good enough for second in the AMAC. Her field goal percentage of 50 made her the only player besides Wormack to make at least half of her shots.

She helped the Rams shoot almost 75% from the foul line by hitting 138 of 171 for a percentage of 80.1, second highest in the conference. She also averaged 3.8 rebounds, and 2.1 steals per game.

• Torie Bosley was the only player in the AMAC to post a better free throw percentage than her teammate Sweitzer. Although she attempted far fewer shots, she was able to convert on 81.1 percent of them.

Her league-high 53 three-pointers helped her to a 11.6 points a night. Her three-pointers accounted for 57.2% of her total points. She was able to finish with an average of 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 steals.

• Emillee Bosley rounds out Southern’s three selections by joining her big sister on the first team.

Along with her sister and Sweitzer, Bosley helped Southern to a 17-7 record and into the semifinals of the Maryland 1A West Region Section playoffs.

She averaged 10.1 points per game and was also successful from outside the three-point line with a total of 42 three-pointers. She attempted just nine free throws, but made every one of them.

The junior also averaged 3.9 rebounds and 1.4 steals every game.

• Nightengale, a 5-7 guard, was the Miners leading scorer with 12.2 points a game. She was a 64.2% shooter from the free-throw line and was among the league leaders in foul shots attempted.

She helped Mountain Ridge to a 7-7 conference record, and a 11-12 mark overall. The Miners started the season 5-1, and they were never more than a game over or under .500 in the conference.

Nightengale finished with averages of 3.3 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 1.7 assists per game.

Chris Appel is a sportswriter for the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Chris Appel at cappel@times-news.com.