Frontenac senior Vinny Collier has been named the 2025 Morning Sun boys basketball player of the year.
Collier led the Raiders in scoring with 15 points per contest.
“There’s so many things he did well,” Frontenac head coach Ryan Varsolona said. “He played within our system really well. He was a really good leader, a lot of the younger guys looked up to him. He competes hard in practice and he worked his butt off.”
Collier helped the Raiders to a 12-10 record and an 8-4 record in CNC League play, ending the regular season on a four-game winning streak. Collier scored 29 points in Frontenac’s first round game of the Class 3A sub-state playoffs as the Raiders knocked off Neodesha 71-48. The Raiders lost in the sub-state semifinal game 63-58 to the then undefeated Galena Bulldogs, who finished fourth in Class 3A.
“Vinny is a shy kid,” Varsolona said. “He grew into a great leader. He took on that role, it happened during the summertime. He competed hard and he loves to win. He did a good job of getting going and hitting open shots and getting into rhythm. He wasn’t trying to take fast shots and score 20 points really fast.”
Collier was a unanimous first-team all CNC League selection after earning an honorable mention last season.
“He’s worked a ton on his game,” Varsolona said. “He came to the gym quite a bit, but he’s also at Schlanger Park almost every night taking on anyone who would play. He’s a gym rat, he works really hard on his full game. He went from being just a shooter to attacking. Something he was able to do this season was draw defenders and then kick to open players for easy baskets.
“We’re going to miss his leadership. That competitive spirit, he was just an all around great kid. He would play against our team manager Will Smith all the time just to get another pickup game. All the young kids gravitated towards him.”
