Media members from around the Upper Peninsula converged on Northern Michigan University in Marquette for the annual basketball meeting of the U.P. Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association for both boys and girls awards. Girls awards will be announced next week.

During the boys portion of the meeting, the Patriots senior was one of five players from a full range of school sizes to be elected to the most elite team for All-U.P. honors.

He was joined by Tanner Theuerkauf of Menominee, Vic Giuliani of Forest Park, Liam Tourtillott of Dollar Bay and Gunner Bennin of Pickford.

Later, the assembled media also chose another 30 players — actually 31 due to a tie — for several other honor squads.

Marquette's Ford Richardson, wearing No. 11 at center, holds up the district championship trophy to his teammates after the Sentinels defeated Traverse City West in the finals of the MHSAA Division 1 tournament held at the Barb Crill Gymnasium in Marquette on Feb. 27. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Then it was time to pick the top awards from the elite.

Marta was again a unanimous choice as U.P. Player of the Year for Divisions 1-3 — his only opposition was Theuerkauf — and after Tourtillott was elected Player of the Year in Division 4, one final vote was taken for U.P. Player of the Year, better known as Mr. U.P. Basketball.

And Marta again won that vote in a landslide, 14-4, over Tourtillott.

Marta, a 6-foot-3 guard, certainly had the statistics and a long list of awards to back up the choice of the assemblage.

This season, he averaged 28 points per game, possibly more than enough to win all these awards based just on that. But he also pulled down 7.6 rebounds a contest to go with other per-game averages of 3.6 assists, 3.6 steals and 4.5 deflections.

Westwood’s Ethan Marta, right, puts a shoulder out to brace against Ishpeming’s Parker Gleason as the Patriots player drives to the basket and scores two of his 38 points during their game played at the Westwood gym in Ishpeming on Feb. 4. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

He also had a nifty 1.9 assist-to-turnover ratio, meaning he had almost twice as many assists as turnovers. And he shot 57.2% from the field.

Marta was the unanimous choice by coaches as Player of the Year in both conferences Westwood played in, the West PAC — Western Peninsula Athletic Conference — and Mid-Peninsula Conference.

While The Associated Press — actually the Michigan Sports Writers organization for the past several years — has yet to release its all-state teams, Marta was a First Team all-stater in 2025, along with the same honor by the Detroit Free Press then.

Career-wise at Westwood, Marta is the school’s all-time leading scorer for any boy or girl player, quite a distinction considering some of the quality players of both genders the school has produced in its just-over-50-year history.

He finished with 2,069 points, according to Patriots’ head coach Luke Gray, which he added is the 36th most in the history of high school boys basketball in the state.

A check of the Michigan High School Athletic Association website, www.mhsaa.com, does show Marta tied for 36th on that list, knotted with Demetrius Lake of Holland, who played from 2014-17.

Leading the list is Jay Smith of Mio-Au Sable (1976-79) with 2,841 points.

Marta also broke into the top 10 all-time for U.P. boys in eighth place, led by Foster Wonders of Iron Mountain of Iron Mountain from 2018-21 with 2,286 points.

That list also includes Dom Jacobetti of Negaunee St. Paul, who played way back from 1962-65, with 2,140 points.

Marta set Westwood’s single-game scoring record this past season with a 46-point effort vs. Negaunee, when he also had eight steals and five rebounds. He added a 40-pointer vs. Ishpeming and games in the 30s against Ishpeming, Houghton, Marquette and Gladstone, three of the latter games also including double-digit rebounds.

“Ethan is the leader and heart of our team,” Gray said in comments supporting Marta’s nomination for All-U.P. awards. “We’ve had back-to-back years as conference champions and district champions.

“Last year (he) led us to the Breslin Center (at Michigan State University) and No. 1 in the UPSSA weekly polls as a senior. We loaded our regular season schedule and followed through with a 21-1 regular season finish.

“Ethan’s field goal percentage, (when you) correlate (it) to his points-per-game at the guard position, is tremendous.

“Also an excellent defender, his IQ and love for the game makes him one of the toughest players I have been around.

“He went four years starting on varsity, never missing a game as he played through injuries.”

Gray himself was up for consideration as Divisions 1-3 Coach of the Year, though Sam Larson of Menominee won that honor in a landslide, likely because the Maroons defeated Westwood 59-46 in the MHSAA Division 3 regional championship game at Kingsford on March 3.

Menominee (23-5) was also picked as Division 3 Team of the Year over Westwood (23-2) probably for the same reason, plus the Maroons reached the D-3 semifinals at MSU before being eliminated from the tourney.

Marquette (18-8) was chosen as the Divisions 1-2 Team of the Year over Kingsford (17-7). The Sentinels were second at 6-2 and Kingsford third at 4-4 in the Great Northern Conference behind Menominee.

MSHS played nine games against Lower Peninsula competition, defeating Muskegon Reeths-Puffer and Harbor Beach in the regular season, and Traverse City Central, TC West and Mount Pleasant in the Division 1 tournament, where the Sentinels made it to the regional finals in that always-rugged division for the state’s largest schools.

In other All-U.P. votes, Dollar Bay (24-3) was chosen as Division 4 Team of the Year over Pickford (25-1) as the Blue Bolts reached the D-4 semifinals, while DB coach Jesse Kentala won a vote over Stephenson’s Christian Londo for D-4 Coach of the Year.

Tourtillott won a rather close 10-7 vote over Giuliani as Division 4 Player of the Year, too.

Looking at the other members of the Dream Team, Tourtillott, a 6-foot senior at Dollar Bay, was noted for posting averages of 20.2 points, 6.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.5 steals per game, while shooting 43% from 3-point range. He finished his career with more than 1,800 points and was named Copper Mountain Conference MVP.

Theuerkauf, the brother of current Northern Michigan University quarterback Trevor Theuerkauf, is a 6-3 senior at Menominee and averaged 17.8 points, five rebounds and 2.2 assists an outing while making right at 50% from the floor. He was Great Northern Conference Player of the Year.

Giuliani is a 6-3 junior at Forest Park and averaged 20.6 points, 7.1 rebounds, 2.4 steals and 2.1 assists a contest while shooting a nifty 61% from the floor. He was Skyline Central Conference Player of the Year.

Bennin is a 6-foot senior at Pickford who averaged 18.6 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.5 steals a game as he was named Eastern U.P. Conference Player of the Year.

Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.