Henry Kuperus, the former Newark boys basketball head coach and current Canandaigua Academy coach, has always stood by his belief that the Finger Lakes East is the most underrated league.

Based on the talent, team successes and the internal slugfest of the league, he remains positive about that belief.

After reaching the state Final Four in the previous two seasons, Wayne Central’s Cameron Blankenberg left to play his final year of high school basketball at a private school, but the Eagles remained highly formidable.

Simultaneously, Geneva had the senior leadership and young talent to go toe-to-toe with the Eagles this season. The two teams split their contests in the regular season before meeting in the Section V Class A semifinal, where Wayne managed to hold off the Panthers.

But, each program retained a share of the FL East league crown by season’s end with 13-1 league marks.

In the league-wide final awards, Geneva had the Player of the Year and the Defensive Player of the Year in Kaden Larsen and the Coach of the Year in Ed Collins Jr.

Right behind Wayne and Geneva was Newark, which under new head coach Justin Rheno had a stellar year, with a 10-4 league record and a run to the Class A quarterfinals.

Players from Geneva, Wayne and Newark accounted for five of the eight First-Team players: Andrew Green and Larsen from Geneva, Aiden Twist and Richie Miles from Wayne and Terrell Jenkins from Newark.

But of all FL East teams, it was Mynderse Academy that tied Wayne for the deepest postseason run in the league. The Blue Devils made it all the way to the Class B1 title game as the No. 7 seed, and fell by eight points to top-seeded LeRoy. Led by First-Team All-Leaguer Braeden Cimineri, Mynderse knocked off Dansville, No. 2 Hornell and No. 6 Wellsville en route to their second-straight sectional finals appearance despite ending with a 4-10 league record.

Jackson Dennie of Palmyra-Macedon and Carter Peterson of Waterloo rounded out the First-Team selections for the East.

Geneva sophomore Jahzire White headlined the Second-Team with six votes and was joined by two other sophomores: Finn Damann of Midlakes and MJ Marvin of Wayne Central.