Jenna Brown of Lovett is the Gatarade Georgia girls basketball player of the year, The Gatorade Company announced Monday.
Brown, a 5-foot-10 senior point guard, averaged 24.0 points, 9.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.4 steals in leading the Lions (25-5) to the Class AAA quarterfinals. Brown also is a Stanford signee, a McDonald’s All-American and a finalist for the Naismith Award.
Brown missed her junior year with a knee injury after helping the USA Basketball Under-17 Women’s National Team to a bronze medal at the 2016 World Championships.
“Jenna is the single best basketball player I have ever seen at the high school level,” said Katie Argall, coach of rival Westminster. “I often found myself in awe of her moves on the court, even as the opposing coach.”
Brown joins recent Gatorade Georgia Girls Basketball players of the year Mikayla Coombs of Wesleyan (2017), Jenna Staiti of West Forsyth (2016) and Asia Durr of St. Pius (2014 and 2015).
The 2017 Gatorade boys player of the year, announced last week, was Ashton Hagans of Newton.
The award recognizes outstanding athletic excellence but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field.
Brown has maintained a weighted A average in the classroom. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball on scholarship at Stanford University beginning this fall.
A member of Lovett’s Teens Against Prejudice Club, Brown has volunteered locally with developmentally challenged adults and has donated her time to her school’s student mentoring program.
As a Gatorade Player of the Year, Brown will be able to select a national or local youth sports organization to receive a grant as part of the Gatorade Play It Forward program. Every Gatorade Player of the Year state winner receives a $1,000 grant to donate.
