Marble Falls boys basketball has several named all-district

CAPTION: Coaches knew that in order to have a chance to beat Marble Falls, they had to find a way to contain junior Guard Beckett Berkman. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Marble Falls High School boys basketball team announced four Mustangs were named All-District 24-4A.

Guard Beckett Berkman was named to the first team, while forward Marc Barrios was named to the second team, and guard Cypress Neve and forward Cooper Gray were honorable mention. All are juniors.

Simply many considered Berkman to be the Mustangs’ best player.

“He was our leading scorer, led us in assists, led us in steals, was second in rebounds,” head coach John Berkman said of his son. “And that was not just in district, but it continued in district. And so for us, he was a big piece of any of the games that we won or that we were in the game. He did that with being the focal point of every other team’s defense and so proud of that for sure.”

Barrios began playing like the player the program envisioned, the coach said.

“Marc, I feel like, really earned his,” he said. “He really came on strong in some moments, when Beckett had been in foul trouble or other teams were able to kind of slow Beckett down. Marc really stepped up in some big ways especially the last five games of the year, really showed his stuff and was able to put on a show several times.”

Neve served as the team’s point guard, often setting up his teammates by directing traffic on both ends while Gray was effective on the perimeter and in the lane.

“I’m just proud that both them were thought of by the other coaches enough to recognize their efforts,” John Berkman said. “They didn’t always score a lot for us, but they did a lot of dirty work by being in the right place at the right time for defensive rotations and some rebounding. There were some games where Cy and Cooper played well offensively, but also came up with some big defensive stops for us and so proud of those guys as well for that.”

Academic all-district members are Kaleb Bielfeldt, Logan Guerrero, Colby Kitchen, Greg Lemon, Charlie Martin, Aaron Vazquez, Barrios, Berkman, Gray and Neve.

As the district campaign played out, there weren’t many blowouts, which illustrate the parity between the members.

“Lampasas obviously was the clear district champ, and I felt like they were the best team from the start,” John Berkman said. “Beyond that, everybody else had chances to beat each other on any given night. For us, the ball just didn’t bounce our way enough, but we definitely had chances even in the last game against the Salado. We kept it close. Our guys played extremely tough and extremely hard. We gave ourselves chances against them. We gave ourselves chances against Burnet, we gave ourselves chances against Gateway and were right there. So hopefully that translates into us having the ball bounce our way next year and being the team that comes out on top.”

CAPTION: Junior forward Marc Barrios is fulfilling the role coaches envisioned for him as a threat on both ends of the floor. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro