Top Bearcats honored at Basketball Awards Banquet

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

GREENE — Whenever North Butler boys basketball coach David Brown would come to the school in the morning, he was pleased to always see Dylan Clipperton working on his game in the gym before classes.

“Of course with his father, he always had a key to the place,” Brown said in reference to Dylan’s dad, Kevin Clipperton, who was the longtime girls coach for the Bearcats.

Though the gym was always open for him, last Friday during North Butler’s Basketball Awards Banquet Dylan confirmed that he has closed the door on his athletic career — or rather his athletic career played in front of a paid audience.

“It’s over … this is it,” said Clipperton, who will continue his education at North Iowa Area Community College, but will focus on learning the automotive trade and has no aspirations of playing on the Trojans basketball team.

“That was my final sport season here,” Clipperton said of the concluded basketball season. “I’m not playing any sports in the spring, so I’m done with athletics.

“Yeah, it’s starting to sink in. All I could say is that the last four years have been the best four years of my life.”

A four-year letter-winner in basketball, Clipperton came up about 60 points short of becoming the Bearcats’ all-time leading scorer. Though he would have loved to play a little longer this postseason to possibly eclipse the mark, prolific scoring wasn’t what Clipperton took most pride in.

“I’m more proud of that than anything else,” Clipperton said of him being North Butler’s all-time assist leader.

Clipperton also is the school’s all-time leader in steals and ranks among the Top 10 in rebounds.

During Friday’s banquet, Clipperton was honored with the team’s “Mr. Bearcat”, “Most Valuable Offense” and “Most Valuable All-Around” awards after leading the team in scoring (12.7 ppg), rebounds (100), assists (67) and steals.

Fellow senior Sam Dolan received the team’s “Most Valuable Defense” award.

After the Bearcats won their first four games of the season, they went into a little funk after losing to Saint Ansgar in overtime.

But the biggest blow to the team was when Dolan — who was averaging 8.6 ppg and was the team’s most accurate 3-point shooter — went down mid-season with an ankle injury and was out for the rest of the year.

North Butler’s girls basketball team was also honored during the banquet after finishing 11-10 including a first-round win in the regionals under first-year coach Megan Neuendorf.

Among the award recipients were senior Nicole Heeren, who led the team in scoring (9.4 ppg) and rebounds (141) and was named “Most Valuable Offense”; senior Marcy Jacobs, who was second on the team in scoring (8.0 ppg) and was named “Most Valuable Defense”; senior Morgan Arjes, who led the team in assists (70) and 3-point shots made (24), and was named “Most Valuable All-Around”; and senior Madi Pleas, who led the team in steals (60), and was named “Miss Bearcat”.