In its 35th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company today announced Katie Scott of Carl Junction High School as its 2019-20 Gatorade Missouri Girls Basketball Player of the Year. Scott is the first Gatorade Missouri Girls Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from Carl Junction High School.
The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Scott as Missouri’s best high school girls basketball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year award to be announced in March, Scott joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Maya Moore (2005-06 Collins Hill High School, Ga.), Rashanda McCants (2004-05, Asheville High School, N.C.), Candace Parker (2001-02, Naperville Central High School, Ill.), Diana Taurasi (1998-99 & 1999-00, Don Antonio Lugo High School, Calif.), Shyra Ely (1999-00, Ben Davis High School, Ind.), Katie Smith (1991-92, Logan High School, Ohio) and Lisa Leslie (1988-89, Morningside High School, Calif.).
The 6-foot-3 senior forward led the Bulldogs to a 24-0 record and a berth in the Class 4, District 12 tournament semifinals at the time of her selection. Scott averaged 21.9 points, 11.7 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 3.3 steals and 2.8 blocks through 24 games. Scott is a two-time Class 4 First Team All-State selection. She entered the postseason with 1,792 points and 872 rebounds in her prep basketball career.
A three-time global finalist for Destination Imagination, an organization designed to empower the next generation of innovators and problem-solvers, Scott has volunteered locally at a preschool for underprivileged children. She has also donated her time on behalf of the Special Olympics and as a caregiver at her church’s nursery.
“Katie is a tremendous problem to match up with,” said David Brewer, head coach of Ozark High. “She is such a big, athletic body that plays inside, but she can shoot from the perimeter and put the ball on the floor. She is just a very good player all around.”
A National Merit Commended Student, Scott has maintained a 4.0 GPA in the classroom and ranks No. 1 in her class. She has signed a national letter of intent to play basketball on scholarship at Drury University this fall.
The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track and field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport. From the 12 national winners, one male and one female athlete are each named Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year. In all, 607 athletes are honored each year.
Scott joins Gatorade Missouri Girls Basketball Players of the Year Hayley Frank (2018-19 & 2017-18, Strafford High School), Lauryn Miller (2016-17, Kirkwood High School), Taylor Baur (2015-16, MICDS), Napheesa Collier (2014-15, Incarnate Word Academy), and Sophie Cunningham (2013-14, Rock Bridge High School) as athletes who have won the basketball award since its inception in 2007.
As a part of Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Scott also has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of her choosing. She is also eligible to submit an essay to win one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants for the organization of choice, which will be announced throughout the year.
Since the program’s inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of professional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming coaches, business owners and educators.
