Crutchfield is one of only two boys earning All-Area honors for the second straight season. He and Mercer County guard Kameron McRay were voted to the second team last year.
Crutchfield was the Garrard basketball team's primary point guard, and he was the quarterback for the football team. Those are two positions where leadership is a must.
"I think his biggest asset is just his leadership quality," Bolin said. "And that's in the classroom, that's on the floor, that's out in the community. He's a leader for Garrard County, not only just for our basketball team."
Bolin is one of two interim coaches who led area boys teams this season. He and his interim counterpart, Ronnie Bottoms of Boyle County, split the votes for the Advocate-Messenger's Area Coach of the Year award and will share that honor.
Both coaches were brought in on a temporary basis after their predecessors left for other jobs late last summer, and it remains uncertain whether either will return next season. Bottoms led Boyle to a 20-11 record, its best record in six years. The Rebels won 11 straight games in a five-week stretch and reached the semifinals of the 12th Region Tournament before losing to eventual champion South Laurel.
Like Boyle, Bolin's Garrard team lost four of its first five games before righting itself. The Golden Lions were 6-10 before winning eight of nine games late in the season, and they finished 15-14 after a loss to South Laurel in the first round of the regional.
A look at each of the All-Area honorees:
FIRST TEAM
Spencer Crutchfield
Crutchfield is a three-category leader for Garrard, at the top of the Lions' stat sheet in points (18.2), rebounds (7.5) and assists (4.5) per game, and he ranked first in assists and second in scoring among all area players. He also led the team in field-goal percentage (.603) and free-throw percentage (.630).
"Spencer is a leader for us as far as the things he brought to our team, but he's also a leader by example," Bolin said. "He really helped me as a first-year coach, having an experienced player like him to help settle the kids, and to help settle me, too."
Crutchfield will play football at Cumberland, and Bolin said Garrard will miss his drive.
"One of the reasons our kids played so hard was because of the desire they had. Spencer was the head of that, and they all fed off that," Bolin said.
Brian Staed
The Boyle center wasn't far from averaging a double-double this season with 13.7 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, and Bottoms said Staed's improvement came not just in his scoring but in his passing.
"Offensively, he's just making great decisions on where to throw it, and I think he's becoming a great passer," Bottoms said. "He's been a solid force, in my opinion the best inside player in the area. He just has the desire to be good, and all of a sudden he gained confidence, and that was the thing he needed."
Staed is still only 16, and Bottoms said he expects to see him continue to progress in his final high school season and beyond.
"His best basketball is yet to come," Bottoms said. "Brian just gets better every day he's in the gym."
Kameron McRay
McRay led Mercer in only one statistical category with 4.0 assists per game, but Mercer coach Greg Edwards said he was easily the Scotties' most valuable player.
"He's the one guy one our team that it seems like we can never take him off the floor," Edwards said. "In over 20 years of coaching, he works harder than any player I've ever coached. His work ethic is just off the chart. He practices and plays the same way, never takes a day off, never takes a game off."
McRay's strong academic record has made him attractive to a number of small colleges, including Centre. Edwards said a summer of hard work on his game has paid off for McRay, who also averaged 10.2 points.
"All the kids respect him, and they see how hard he works, so it just makes him a natural as far as a good point guard," Edwards said.
David White
White's worth was never more apparent than when he was lost to a knee injury in the final week of the regular season. Until then, the point guard had been a driving forced behind Boyle's success.
