Poll results: Here’s the high school boys basketball player of the week in southwest Illinois

Gannon Birkner of New Athens High School is the winner of the Belleville News-Democrat Boys Player of the Year high school basketball poll for 2021-22, as selected by readers of bnd.com.

Birkner, a junior center, finished the season averaging 20.2 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.72 assists for the 16-16 Yellow Jackets. Along the way, Birkner led New Athens in points per game, rebounds per game, steals per game (1.5), blocks per game (0.6), field goal percentage (59.8%) and free throw percentage (73.2%).

According to New Athens coach Conrad Widderhsheim, Birkner also made the Sesser-Valier Holiday All-Tournament team, the Chester Invitational All-Tournament team and the Cahokia (Kaskaskia) All-Conference team while garnering IBCA All-State Special Mention.

Widdersheim said Birkner shined off the court as well while offering high praise for the standout junior.

“Gannon was our team captain this year and he took on that role by both being a hard-working leader and a leader in the stat columns,” Widdersheim said. “His success reaches into the classroom as well as he is first in his class with a 4.0 GPA and is the vice president of the school’s National Honor Society. Gannon is a high character student-athlete who is very coachable and a great role model for the younger kids and we are very lucky to have him for one more year.”

Birkner — also the Week 11 boys winner — tallied 13,143 votes (48%) to finish ahead of other BND nominees Dylan Murphy of Columbia High School (5,221 votes, 19%), Brady Moore of Breese Central High School (5,221 votes, 15%), Devin Davis of Collinsville High School (2,658 votes, 10%) and Kaden Augustine of Gibault Catholic High School (2,375 votes, 9%).

Other candidates included Caleb Burton of O’Fallon High School, Rini Harris of O’Fallon High School, Tyler Lunning of O’Fallon High School, Lane Otten of Freeburg High School and Jake Ottensmeier of Highland High School.

All candidates were previous BND Boys Athlete of the Week winners from this past season. The poll ended at 11:59 p.m. Monday.

Player of the year candidates

Here are the final stats from 2021-22 for all the player of the year candidates — other than Birkner, whose outputs are above:

• Augustine: A junior guard, Augustine finished the season averaging 14.1 points and 3.2 rebounds for the 22-10 Hawks.
  
  
• Burton: A senior guard, Burton finished the season averaging 11.9 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.69 assists per game for the 23-8 Panthers.
  
  
• Davis: Davis, a senior guard, finished the season averaging 10.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.84 for the 26-6 Kahoks.
• Harris: A sophomore guard, Harris finished the high school basketball season averaging 9.3 points and 4.0 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game for the 23-8 Panthers.
• Lunning: A senior guard, Lunning finished the season averaging 9.8 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.32 steals per game for the 23-8 Panthers.
• Moore: A senior forward, Moore finished the season averaging 16.1 points and 4.2 rebounds for the 28-6 Cougars.
• Murphy: A junior forward, Murphy finished the season averaging 15.3 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.63 assists for the 23-9 Eagles.
• Otten: A junior guard/forward, Otten finished the season averaging 13.9 points and 5.5 rebounds and for the 20-10 Midgets.
• Ottensmeier: A sophomore guard, Ottensmeier finished the season averaging 13.9 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.97 assists for the 14-16 Bulldogs.

To be clear, this poll is not scientific. In fact, we invite you to vote as many times as you want. It’s all for fun, BND readers.

Moving forward, anyone can nominate a varsity baseball or softball player for an upcoming poll by emailing gvartanian@bnd.com. The next poll will appear on the BND’s website — www.bnd.com — at 5 a.m. Tuesday.

Winter sports poll winners

Tyler Lunning of O’Fallon High School (Week 1); Dylan Murphy of Columbia High School (Week 2); Brady Moore of Breese Central High School (Week 3); Collinsville Prairie Farms Holiday Classic as the most popular holiday tournament (Week 4); Kaden Augustine of Gibault Catholic High School (Week 5); Natalie Peterson of Freeburg High School (Week 6); Sydney Harris of Edwardsville High School (Week 7); Kaylyn Wylie of Granite City High School and Lunning (Week 8); Kylie Kisgen of Freeburg High School and Lane Otten of Freeburg High School (Week 9); Caleb Burton of O’Fallon High School and Jaliah Pelly of O’Fallon High School (Week 10); Gannon Birkner of New Athens High School and Reagan Chigas of Triad High School (Week 11); Norah Gum of Waterloo High School and Jake Ottensmeier of Highland High School (Week 12); Devin Davis of Collinsville High School and Harris (Week 13); Rini Harris of O’Fallon High School and Peterson (Week 14); the Nashville boys and Freeburg girls as teams of the year (Week 15); and the 1960-61 Collinsville boys team as the best-ever state champion from southwestern Illinois (Week 16).