Liberty North’s Laster II wins Buck Buchanan Memorial Award

In a field of four finalists for the Buck Buchanan Award, [player_tooltip player_id="172304" first="Melvin" last="Laster"] II was the lone sophomore battling a group of seniors for the award named after the former Chiefs defensive lineman standout. The award presented to the best offensive/defensive lineman or linebacker in the Kansas City metro area on a team that is either in Class 5-6 in Kansas or Missouri in the greater Kansas City area. Coaches from both sides of the state tabbed Laster as the choice for the award, which was handed out on Tuesday, Dec. 7 at Blue Valley (Kan.) Northwest High School in Overland Park, Kansas. Laster beat out the likes of Lee’s Summit North offensive lineman [player_tooltip player_id="99439" first="Armand" last="Membou"], North Kansas City defensive lineman Dominique Orange and Park Hill South offensive lineman/defensive lineman [player_tooltip player_id="198125" first="James" last="Williams"]. The final three, all seniors, will be playing college football on Saturdays next year. Membou signed with Missouri, while Orange’s final four are Texas A&amp;M, Oregon, Ohio State and Iowa State. Williams has a pair of walk-on offers from Missouri and Kansas to go with a handful of Division II and NAIA offers. He is believed to be only the second sophomore to win any Simone Award, the other was Ray-Pec’s Jaidyn Ross, who won the Otis Taylor Award last year. Laster recorded 79 tackles, nine sacks and had two interceptions, including nine tackles tackles and a sack in the Class 6 championship game. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Check out my Hudl Highlight - Varsity Season Highlights 2021-2022, on <a href="https://twitter.com/Hudl?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Hudl</a> at - <a href="https://t.co/WhXLYhlqJv">https://t.co/WhXLYhlqJv</a></p>&mdash; [player_tooltip player_id="172304" first="Melvin" last="Laster"] II (@melvin_laster) <a href="https://twitter.com/melvin_laster/status/1466267832606511112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 2, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Liberty North coach Greg Jones pointed out qualities that many don’t see in Laster, such as his humility to how coachable he is with the Eagles’ staff. Laster is only the second athlete from town to win the award, which started in 1992, joining Liberty’s Jeremy Martin. Now, Laster is focused on winning the award again, which has happened only twice. Evan Boehm of Lee’s Summit West won in 2010 and 2011, while Blue Springs’ Elijah Lee followed the next two years. Along with Laster, Liberty North quarterback [player_tooltip player_id="172248" first="Sam" last="Van Dyne"] was one of four finalists for The Thomas A. Simone Memorial Award, given to the top player in the area. That award went to Blue Valley Northwest’s Mikey Pauley, a Nebraska baseball commit who led the Huskies to the Kansas Class 6A title. Van Dyne was the only underclassmen of the four finalists: The others were Lee’s Summit North quarterback [player_tooltip player_id="171825" first="Tre" last="Baker"] and quarterback Jet Dineen of Lawrence Free State. Van Dyne, a junior, led the Eagles to the Class 6 championship game and finished the year with 2,141 yards passing with 21 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He triggered an offense that averaged 35.2 points per game and 4,992 yards of total offense on the season. In addition, he was the Suburban Gold Division Offensive Player of the Year in the same division that featured Baker, a Southern Illinois pledge. Jones was also one of four finalists for the Kansas City Chiefs/Eric Driskell Coach of the Year Award, which went to Blue Valley Northwest’s Clint Rider. The other two candidates were Smithville’s Jason Ambroson and Pleasant Hill’s Justin Hamilton.