Mount St. Joseph’s BJ Ransom selected as BCL Player of Year; league unveils new academic honors

TOWSON — Mount St. Joseph senior guard BJ Ranson, who led the Gaels to a 29-win regular season, earned the Baltimore Catholic League’s Jerry Savage Player of the Year Award for the 2025-26 season.

In its 55th season, the Baltimore Catholic League, comprising eight Catholic high schools, includes Archbishop Spalding High School, Calvert Hall College, The John Carroll School, Loyola Blakefield, Mount St. Joseph High School, Our Lady of Mount Carmel School, St. Frances Academy and St. Mary’s High School.

The league completed its regular season Feb.15 and will tip off its three-day championship tournament March 1, 2 and 4 at Loyola University Maryland’s Reitz Arena.

Awards were presented at a luncheon Feb. 16 at Calvert Hall. The honors were the results of balloting conducted among the league’s eight head coaches. For the first time in its history, the BCL honored two players from each of its schools with all-academic honors.

The luncheon featured a keynote address from Mount St. Mary’s University men’s basketball coach Donny Lind, who chronicled his passion for the sport and his journey from student manager at Loyola University to conference-winning coach at Mount St. Mary’s University.

Mount St. Joseph coach Pat Clatchey, who led the Gaels to a 10-4 league record and a 29-6 overall record (through Feb. 14), and John Carroll head coach Seth Goldberg, who led the Patriots to a 9-5 league record and a 22-8 overall mark (through Feb. 14), share the league’s O. Ray Mullis Coach of the Year award.

Two other BCL superlative awards were earned by St. Frances. Senior Anthony Smith is the Mark Amatucci Defensive Player of the Year and St. Frances junior Carter Fisk is the Cokey Robertson Most Improved Player of the Year. The Dan Popera Sportsmanship Award was shared by Loyola junior Brant Hall Jr. and Mount Carmel junior Junior Mancho.

Ranson, a first-team All-BCL choice last season who is committed to play at St. Joseph University in Philadelphia next season, is the 13th Player of the Year winner from Mount St. Joseph since the award began for the 1988-89 season. He is the first Gaels player to win the honor since Amani Hansberry (2022-23). Ranson averaged 22.7 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game for the Mount this season.

Clatchey is the Mullis Coach of the Year for the eighth time in his career, and his first since 2015-16. He mentored a Gaels team that won 29 games for the 16th time in his 34 seasons on the MSJ bench. Clatchey shares the honor with Goldberg, who is the Mullis Coach of the Year for the first time in his eight seasons at John Carroll and the first head coach from the school to win the award. Goldberg coached John Carroll this season to 22 victories, the most since the Patriots won 22 in 2019-20 and the most BCL victories (nine) for the Patriots since 2021-22. The BCL first awarded the Coach of the Year for the 1988-89 season, and it was re-named in the late Cardinal Gibbons coach’s honor for the 1994-95 season.

Smith averages 10.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 3.0 assists per game for St. Frances. He is the Panthers’ fourth Amatucci Defensive Player of the Year winner, and the first since Julian Reese in 2019-20. The Amatucci Defensive Player of the Year, honoring the former Calvert Hall coach, has been given since the 2007-08 season.

Fisk averages 17.1 points, 2.6 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists for St. Frances. He is the third Panthers player to earn the Robertson Most Improved Player of the Year Award, and the first since Cortez Johnson in 2021-22. The Robertson Most Improved Player of the Year, honoring the former St. Maria Goretti coach, was first awarded in the 2011-12 season.

The Popera Sportsmanship Award, the BCL’s oldest honor since it was given at the first BCL Tournament in 1972, becomes a season-long award for 2025-26. The award, re-named for the late Archbishop Curley coach for the 2024 BCL Tournament, is given to the player who consistently demonstrates fairness, respect, civility and sportsmanship on and off the court. Hall, a Loyola junior, is the 11th Dons player to receive the award and the first since Mitchell Fischer at the 2019 BCLT. Mancho, a junior at Mount Carmel, is the seventh Cougar to earn the award, and the first since Andrew Dixon at the 2024 BCLT.

The 2025-26 All-BCL first team is made up of BJ Ranson, Fisk, St. Frances junior Terence Jones III, John Carroll senior Aidan Able, Mount Carmel senior Tristen Wilson and Archbishop Spalding sophomore Braxton Bogard.

The All-BCL second team consists of Archbishop Spalding sophomore Nash Avery, Calvert Hall junior Cameron Wood, John Carroll senior Andrew Clark, Mount Carmel senior Gage Howard and Mount St. Joseph sophomore Chauncey Word.

Ten players received honorable mention recognition: Junior Mancho (Mount Carmel), Moe Lonergan (Archbishop Spalding), Parris Lee (John Carroll), Kaleb Haysbert (Loyola), Anthony Smith (St. Frances), Ellis Johnson (Calvert Hall), Noah Cerny (St. Mary’s), Gavin Johnson (St. Mary’s), Aaron Early Jr. (Mount St. Joseph) and Colin Clevenger (Loyola).

For the first time in its history, the BCL instituted an All-Academic Team, honoring two players from each BCL school for academic achievement. The honorees are Anthony Buchman and TJ Moultrie (Archbishop Spalding), Colin Foster and Christian Smith (Calvert Hall), Aidan Able and Charlie Rhinehart (John Carroll), Colin Clevenger and BJ Simmons (Loyola), Kenneth Anthony and Shamal Hartgrove (Mount St. Joseph), Junior Mancho and Tristen Wilson (Mount Carmel), Carter Fisk and Jacksen Jeselkis (St. Frances), and Noah Cerny and Nicholas Argerson (St. Mary’s).

First-year BCL Commissioner Mark Rohde Sr. noted at the luncheon that this year’s class of BCL players has a combined 3.55 grade-point average.

The 2025-26 winners of the Dave Kropfelder Never, Never Quit Awards for each school are: Donte Davis (Archbishop Spalding), Emmanuel Okezie (Calvert Hall), Cole Johnson (John Carroll), Jordan Crawford (Loyola), Tristan Heflin (Mount Carmel), Greg Butler (Mount St. Joseph), Mason Glover (St. Frances) and Nicholas Argerson (St. Mary’s).

The 55th Baltimore Catholic League Tournament, presented by Brooks Financial Group, begins March 1 with No. 8 seed Loyola (1-13 BCL) against No. 1 seed and regular season champion St. Frances (12-2 BCL) at 1 p.m., No. 7 seed St. Mary’s (1-13 BCL) takes on No. 2 seed Mount Carmel (10-4 BCL) at 2:45 p.m., No. 6 seed Calvert Hall (4-10 BCL) plays No. 3 seed Mount St. Joseph (10-4 BCL) at 4:30 p.m. and No. 5 seed Archbishop Spalding (9-5 BCL) faces No. 4 seed John Carroll (9-5 BCL) in the nightcap at 6:15 p.m. The semifinal round is Monday, March 2 with the 5/4 winner playing the 8/1 winner at 6 p.m. and the 6/3 winner taking on the 7/2 winner at 8 p.m. On March 4, the junior varsity championship is at 6 p.m., and the varsity championship game at 8 p.m.

Tickets for each day of the 2026 BCL Tournament ($15 for adults 19 and over, $5 for children age 6 through high school, free for children 5 and under) are on sale at bclbasketball.com.

Email Gerry Jackson at gjackson@CatholicReview.org

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