2023-24 All-area boys basketball: Coach and Newcomer of the Year

Meet the 2023-24 Dallas Morning News all-area boys basketball honorees for coach and newcomer of the year.

More All-Area awards

— 2023-24 all-area boys basketball Player of the Year: Faith Family’s Isaac Williams

— 2023-24 All-area boys basketball: Coach and Newcomer of the Year

— 2023-24 all-area boys basketball: Meet the best players in Dallas

— 2023-24 Dallas-area all-district boys basketball: MVPs, first teams and more

Newcomer of the Year

Mario Wooden, Frisco Panther Creek

Classification: Junior

Position: Guard

Height: 6-5

A Frisco ISD player claims the Newcomer of the Year award for a second consecutive year thanks to Mario Wooden’s impressive performance during his first year on varsity.

The junior helped Frisco Panther Creek to a 20-12 finish in the school’s second varsity basketball season since opening in 2022. Wooden averaged 16 points, six rebounds and five assists for the 4A Region II quarterfinalist.

He recorded five double-doubles this season, picking up a TABC 4A All-Region honor and the District 11-4A offensive MVP award.

In at least six games this season, Wooden scored more than 20 points. Panther Creek coach Kevin Graham described Wooden as the best all-around player in District 11-4A.

Also considered: Frisco Lone Star’s Josh Weems, St. Mark’s’ Dawson Battie, North Crowley’s Isaak Hayes

Recent Winners

2023: Trent Perry, Frisco Lone Star

2022: Parker Jefferson, Waxahachie

2021: Dink Pate, Pinkston

2020: Arterio Morris, Kimball

2019: Trae Clayton, Oak Cliff Faith Family

Coach of the year

Matt Wester, Plano East

For the last four years, Matt Wester and the seniors in Plano East’s boys basketball program had been working toward winning a state championship.

Plano East head coach Matt Wester, front, waits in anticipation with the team bench before a... — Plano East head coach Matt Wester, front, waits in anticipation with the team bench before a 3-pointer dropped during second quarter action against Keller. Plano East won, 76-60 to advance to the state tournament. The two teams played their Class 6A Region 1 championship boys basketball game at at Willkerson-Greines Activity Center in Fort Worth on March 2, 2024. (Steve Hamm/SpecialContributor)(Steve Hamm)

But it wasn’t until the 2022-23 season that Wester realized Plano East truly had the potential to do so. While Plano East exited the playoffs in the second round that year, it fell 66-64 to eventual 6A state champion Lake Highlands, which was led by five-star Texas signee and McDonald’s All-American Tre Johnson.

“We knew we were returning all but two players and we thought the gap between where we were and where Lake Highlands was, was small enough that we could make that up,” Wester told The Dallas Morning News earlier this year.

Closing that gap meant grueling summer track workouts and hitting the weight room extra hard. Those offseason strides, coupled with an unmatched chemistry between players who had hooped together since as early as elementary school, culminated in a 40-0 state championship season that came 30 years after Plano East’s last, and only previous, state tournament appearance.

Plano East’s 53-41 win over No. 2 Round Rock Stony Point in the 6A state title game earned the school its first boys basketball title — and first UIL title in any team sport — since it opened in 1981. The win also made Plano East the first undefeated champion in the state’s top classification since Duncanville in the 2006-07 season.

Wester had confidence in his team’s potential ahead of the season, but not even he could have predicted all that Plano East accomplished.

“Going into the final four we had a 27-point margin of victory average. That’s just silly,” Wester said after the historic state championship win. “I thought we had a chance to win it all, but to do it the way we did it, winning all the games by double figures? That’s just silly.”

Also considered: Lancaster’s Ferrin Douglas, Faith Family’s Brandon Thomas, Mansfield Lake Ridge’s Cornelius Mitchell, The Colony’s Cleve Ryan