After helping lead the Canyon Cowboys boys’ basketball team to the CIF Southern Section Division 2A title, Canyon senior Eric Kubel was named the D2A Player of the Year.  Kubel averaged 20.6 points over five games during the Cowboys’ playoff run to the title, including 15 in the championship game against the St. Bonaventure Seraphs, a game that was won after three overtimes, 89-86.  “It’s very special. I’m blessed,” Kubel said. “I worked a lot for this. So, yeah, it’s an honor.”  Canyon head coach Ali Monfared said it’s always a team effort when championships are won, but that Kubel deserves every recognition that he gets.  “Really, really fantastic and really happy for him,” Monfared said. “Basketball is always a team sport, and so we need a team to be able to win the CIF title, for guys to be able to win individual awards. But when the team prospers, the individuals prosper. And Eric really, really deserves this award. It’s the first Player of the Year in our history. And it’s, quite frankly, really deserved for a guy that has put in a work, a body of work, that I’m not sure we’ve seen in a long time.”  For his efforts as a coach, Monfared was named the D2A Coach of the Year.  “He more than deserves that,” Kubel said. “He stays up until 3 in the morning during the season, watching film, watching the team we play the next day.”  The Cowboys also saw junior Isaac Yuhico named to the all-CIF team. He averaged 11.6 points per game in the Southern Section playoffs and was tasked with being the team’s point guard.  Yuhico scored 20 points in the D2A final to lead the Cowboys in scoring, just ahead of senior Chigo Osuji’s 19 points.  Osuji was named to the Southern California Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association all-CIF second team, according to Monfared.  “Those are hard teams to make,” Monfared said. “All-league is really difficult, but for us to get three guys is really special, because I think it shows that we have a team full of guys that sacrifice and play their roles really, really well.”  Six other student-athletes from the Santa Clarita Valley were named to all-CIF teams in either basketball or soccer.  The Hart boys’ soccer team had three players — seniors Diego Rodriguez, Bryan Barron and Marco Gonzalez — named in the Open Division. Rodriguez and Barron were key cogs in the Hawks’ midfield while Gonzalez was solid in goal.  The Hart girls’ soccer team saw seniors Gianna Costello and Adrielle Salvador named in Division 1.  The Hart girls’ basketball team had senior Morgan Mack named after helping lead the Hawks to the Division 2AA quarterfinals.  The post Canyon’s Eric Kubel named Southern Section D2A Player of the Year  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal. ...read more read less