Hewitt, Coulthurst win midseason football player of the year voting by readers

A pair of Herkimer County senior running backs topped online voting by Observer-Dispatch and Times Telegram readers as the area's midseason high school football players of the year.

Central Valley Academy's Logan Hewitt was the pick for traditional 11-player football, and Frankfort-Schuyler Maroon Knight Lionell Coulthurst won the eight-player voting.

Readers picked from among six candidates in each group and more than 66,000 combined votes were cast, 52,594 for the eights and 13,754 for the 11s.

Hewitt and Coulthurst each received more than half the votes in their respective divisions, and each teamed with his runner-up − Hewitt with Whitesboro quarterback Memphis Ferguson and Coulthurst with West Canada Valley quarterback Jack Stewart − to account for 90% of the available votes.

Hewitt, one of five Section III players with more than 1,000 rushing yards through Week 5 this season, has run for 1,053, averaging 7.6 yards per carry and scoring 11 touchdowns.

He set a career-high with 270 yards in a Sept. 20 game against South Jefferson, and passed that with 301 at Camden Oct. 5.

He threw a touchdown pass in the Camden game which was also one of three games in which he has scored three touchdowns, including a Week Zero win at Fonda-Fultonville in which he ran an interception back for the game-winning touchdown against a 2023 state finalist.

Hewitt received 7,537 votes − 54.8% − to Ferguson's 5,084 and 37%. Mt. Markham Mustang CJ Jones finished third, followed by New Hartford Spartan John Vitullo, Dolgeville Blue Devil Trever Borst, and Vitullo's teammate Jake Garcia.

Ferguson, a senior and first-year starter at quarterback, has completed 65% of his passes for 1,130 yards and 16 touchdowns with no interceptions, and he has run for a team-leading 340 yards and 10 touchdowns.

In the eight-player division, the versatile Coulturst added to his resume in Week 5 and now has five touchdowns rushing, three as a receiver, four on kickoff returns, and two on punt returns, helping the 5-0 Maroon Knights score an average of 58 points per game. Teammate Martino Rocco, the Frankfort-Schuyler quarterback, finished fourth in the voting.

Coulthurst earned 27,238 votes − 51.8% − to Stewart's 20,096 and 38.2%. Their teammates followed with West Canada Valley's John Tubia third ahead of Rocco, who was followed by Clinton Comet Benjamin Copperwheat and Morrisville-Eaton Maverick Mason Marland.

Stewart, like Ferguson, is a first-year starter at quarterback as the replacement for a graduated all-state selection. He has passed for 549 yards and six touchdowns with no interceptions, and leads West Canada Valley with 524 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns.

There are two weeks remaining in the scheduled regular season with crossovers and sectional quarterfinals to follow in the first of six potential weeks of playoffs.

This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Hewitt, Coulthurst win midseason football player of the year voting by readers