Other players throughout the Big 30 area — and even one on his own team — scored more points.
But stats alone don’t tell the story of Jared Green’s season leading the Coudersport boys basketball team to the PIAA Class AA Sweet 16 and District 9 and North Tier League championships.
A Big 30 all-star the previous three seasons playing small forward, his freshman through junior years, Green changed positions before his senior campaign to fill a need at point guard. So his scoring and rebounding averages dipped this season, but he picked up in assists to keep the Falcons rolling this season to another district title before falling to eventual PIAA finalist Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, 74-66.
For his leadership and versatility, Green earned the 2017-18 Charles M. Ward Award for the Times Herald’s Big 30 Player of the Year over an impressive field including nominees (and fellow First Team all-stars) Ellicottville senior center Elliot Bowen, Franklinville senior forward Sam Erickson and Olean junior point guard Mike Schmidt.
“I was a little shocked,” Green said of taking home the plaque. “I’ve played AAU with all these guys and played in the Big 30 (senior) all-star game against some of them, so I know their skill level and I was a little shocked after I broke my nose and had to get surgery on it, my numbers dipped a little bit. So it’s just a surreal feeling.”
He’s just the second Pennsylvania player to win the award since its inception in 2002 after Bradford’s Jon Hannon shared it in 2004 with Genesee Valley’s Jake Presutti.
Green scored 16.4 points per game on 61.5 percent field goal shooting this year, along with eight rebounds and 4.7 assists per game, 83 total steals and 19 blocks. He finished with 1,514 career points and 947 boards.
Two nights this season could define the characteristics Coudy coach Brian Furman commends Green the most for: “First if you talk about Jared being a great teammate, the other quality he has is just his toughness,” Furman noted.
His willingness as a passer showed on the night his teammate and fellow First Team Big 30 all-star junior Owen Chambers reached 1,000 points. Green had just five points Jan. 10 against Smethport, but the point guard helped facilitate Chambers getting the 37 he needed to get to 1,000 in a home game.
“That’s just one example of how he approached the game,” Furman said. “I think Jared had maybe four points that game (it was five). It was more about playing the game and getting the ball to Owen and getting the milestone.”
But Green’s and Coudersport’s seasons hit a speedbump Feb. 3, when the Falcons lost 59-57 at Ridgway and the point guard broke his nose.
“He continued to play with a broken nose a few games, practice was limited, then he had surgery on his nose,” Furman said. “They had to put a stent back in there and they rebroke it and lined it up. Again he couldn’t do anything for a week after that happened except for coming to practice and pacing up and down the sidelines because he wasn’t participating.
“So he really had almost a three-week period where he’s dealing with a broken nose and he’s dealing with healing from surgery after that where he couldn’t do a lot in practice. It was pretty much resting up and healing so you can play in the games. Then on top of that he had to wear a mask and as everyone knows, nobody likes to have to play with a mask.”
Exactly a month after that nose-breaking loss, Coudy got its revenge in a 66-46 victory over Ridgway in the D-9 AA title game.
Green now says the injury didn’t really change the way he approached the game, with or without a mask.
“It was tough because I had to use a mask,” he said. “I used a couple different ones to see which one I liked but I eventually just took them off after a couple games.
“I don’t mind it too much,” Green added of the injury risk. “It doesn’t bother me. If I get hit hard enough, it’ll break but that’s just the same as everyone else. I’m just at a little bigger risk.”
Green wore a Kansas Jayhawks hoodie to the Big 30 basketball awards presentation and photo shoot last week and said he plans to attend the university with a sports management major. At one of the true blue-blood basketball schools in the country, he hopes his involvement with the sport can continue.
“Some way or another, whether it’s walking on or manager, something like that,” Green said.
Furman doesn’t count out his chances.
“That’s certainly going to be difficult,” Furman said, “but if he gets an opportunity to show his talents, be it either to help with the program in a manager role or maybe being able to walk on the team, if he gets an opportunity I think he has a real good shot of filling some role. He’s certainly one of the smartest players I’ve coached or even watched at the high school level and that’s going to come through.”
The Big 30 boys all-stars include eight repeat selections, led by Green, a fourth-time qualifier who made the First Team in 2016-17 and 2015-16 and second in 2014-15. Ellicottville’s Elliot Bowen and Franklinville’s Sam Erickson both made the list for the third time and both as second-time first-teamers.
Olean’s Mike Schmidt, Belfast’s Adam Enders, Coudersport’s Owen Chambers and Franklinville’s Darren Clark each repeated this year on the all-star team, while Bradford’s Deondre Terwilliger returns after being a 2015-16 selection.
Enders, a junior, earned the Big 30’s scoring championship, the Gary Grassi Memorial Award, at 28.8 per game, for the second time, also winning it as a freshman.
