https://gnacsports.com/news/2025/3/5...-the-year.aspx
https://gnacsports.com/news/2025/3/4...-the-year.aspx
Well deserved POTY honors for Sunny Huerta, CWU's all-time scoring leader. UAA's Defensive and Newcomer POTY Emilia Long, a transfer from Humboldt, amassed 124 steals and 151 assists this season. Coach McCarthy returned to his throne for Coach pf the Year.
For the men, I was super stoked to see Holden win POTY but also a bit surprised as I expected Kye Dickson to win POTY. While Holden doesn't have eye popping stats, he is certainly someone you have to see play to see why he won the award. Sorta like the Saint Mary's guys who win the WCC POTYs. CWU under Coach of the Year Brandon Rinta has never had any super star players like they used to have under Sparling so CWU players have rarely gotten 1st Team recognition in past years (Samaad Hector was a snub last year). So nice to see the league finally recognize guys like Holden and Garrett Anderson on 1st Team.
There were really tons of great newcomers this year: Dickson, Anderson, Jaxon Nap, Kael Robinson, and Isaiah Saams-Hoy were all big time first-year players in the GNAC. Like CWU last year, this year WWU had multiple pretty good freshmen and they will be a strong team again in seasons to come. Kepley was named GNAC Freshman of the Year but teammate Trevor White also had a strong first year.