Val T.
- Apr 5
- 4 min read

Steady and strong, Argos point guard Richard is RTC Boys Basketball Player of the Year

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

RTC Player of the Year Sean Richard

High school boys basketball is veering in the direction that college and professional basketball is heading.

That is to say that there is a greater emphasis on either shots close to the rim or 3-pointers. The midrange game is being phased out.

So how does one explain Sean Richard? He is Argos’ senior point guard, and he scored 24 points per game while rarely shooting 3s and with every opponent girded to stop him.

It’s what makes high school basketball at the Class 1A level so intriguing. How does a team take advantage of each player’s skill set in order to maximize their contribution to the team?

A role player his freshman and sophomore years, he took over the point guard reins to the Dragons last year, but that often consisted of getting the ball to J.J. Morris.

The team was finally his this year, and he helped will an otherwise extremely young and inexperienced Argos team to 10 wins.

As a result, he is our RTC Player of the Year for boys basketball.

Here is the rest of our All-RTC list. We thank area coaches for their stats, information and insight, but ultimately, this list is ours and ours alone, a product of many winter nights in the gym and few more watching video, and we take full responsibility for it.

For the third straight year, no area teams won their sectional, but we still think we have produced a list of winning players.

Drew Bowers Jack Rodgers Stephen Akase Drew McKaig

First team

Sean Richard (Argos) (Player of the Year) – Richard was quick and strong, and his ability at dribble penetration meant that he lived at the free throw line. He also created spacing to give opportunities to Argos’ young 3-point shooters.
Jack Rodgers (Culver) – Rodgers was another point guard who was not necessarily a prolific 3-point shooter but who instead used his strength and creativity to penetrate into the lane and create shots for himself. Averaging over 20 ppg, he was probably Culver’s most gifted scorer since Trent Elliott a decade ago.
Stephen Akase (Tippecanoe Valley) – Akase improved his ballhandling and his ability to finish at the rim. He has great hands, which allows him to catch tough passes and be a prolific rebounder. He averaged just under 14 ppg, but if he had played against Valley’s old TRC schedule, we suspect that number would be closer to 17 or 18.
Drew McKaig (Pioneer) – McKaig can play just about any position from point guard to power forward, and he could finish at the rim while also excelling in the midrange, and he wound up averaging 17 points, eight rebounds and three assists per game. The opportunities that his teammates received typically came from the attention that McKaig received from his opponents.
Drew Bowers (Rochester) – We considered a number of players for the fifth spot on this team, but we settled on Bowers because of his variety of skills. He was a terror coming from the weak side to get steals, and he could hit the pullup jump shot, and he was a good decision maker with the ball, both in the halfcourt and in transition.

Second team

Riley Shepherd (Tippecanoe Valley) – After an injury-plagued summer and fall, Shepherd returned to Valley’s lineup just before Christmas and gave them another deadeye shooter and 13 ppg. He was also an underrated athlete and defender.
Tanner Reinartz (Rochester) – Around mid-December, Reinartz’s game began to flourish. He could hit 3-pointers, and when defenders ran out to him, he shot-faked and drove in for the pullup jumper. On top of that, he could be a beast on the boards and trigger Rochester’s fast break with his outlet passes.
Luke Stults (Argos) – The 6-5 Stults did all the heavy lifting that Richard did not do, improving his general floor skills while also manning the post and grabbing rebounds. Stults can guard smaller players or even play at the top of a press because of his mobility.
Caleb Stinson (Caston) – What do you get when you mix a really quick point guard with a much improved shooting touch? You get Stinson, who was often competing against top point guards in the Hoosier North and more than holding his own.
Owen Prater (Rochester) – Prater revamped his game from 2023, essentially becoming a post player and seemingly being able to be both a scorer and playmaker from the post. And on top of that, he also had some guard skills, and opposing teams had to respect his shotmaking ability.