Five Iola High Mustang players earned Pioneer League honors for their work on the gridiron during the 2020 season.
Leading the charge was junior Tyler Boeken, who earned first-team honors as both an offensive lineman and as a linebacker.
Boeken anchored the offensive line for the 3-4 Mustangs, while also registering a team-high 62 tackles on defense, including five tackles for loss and two sacks.
Also earning first-team honors was senior Logan Brown, who registered 24 tackles, seven for losses, and blocked a punt.
The third first-teamer was senior receiver Drake Sellman, who garnered a team-high 24 receptions, covering 316 yards with two touchdowns. Sellman ranked second in the Pioneer League in receiving.
EARNING second-team honors were Iola’s Trent Jones, and Isaac Badders.
Jones, a junior, rushed for a team-high 506 yards, despite missing one game due to injury,. He eclipsed the 100-yard mark three times and scored four touchdowns. Jones also had 96 receiving yards. His 601 yards of total offense was good for second-best on the team.
Badders shined as a senior defensive back, where he had 67 tackles, good for second on the team, despite missing the better part of two games due to injury. Badders also had a fumble recovery and two interceptions, including a dazzling pick-six to help seal the season-ending victory over Baxter Springs. This is the second straight year Badders earned second-team honors.
Iola narrowly missed having a third player earn league recognition with senior cornerback Kole Rogers, who had the most memorable defensive performance of the season, with two interception returns for touchdown in a win over Wellsville.
Iola head coach David Daugharthy said a vote of the league coaches put Rogers in a tie with a player from another school. The other player then won a tie-breaking vote.
“They don’t have honorable mention in the Pioneer League honors,” Daugharthy said. “If they did, Kole would have gotten it.”
Iola started the season by winning two of its first three, but then was forced to quarantine for two weeks, thus canceling games against Frontenac and Anderson County.
The Mustangs returned to action in mid-October with a brutal three-game stretch against Prairie View, Girard and Burlington, all of whom made to the second week of the postseason playoffs, with Prairie View still alive for a possible state title.
