Kolek wins Gatorade award

CUMBERLAND — You could say that Tyler Kolek’s adjustment to the prep-school ranks worked out just fine.

On Friday, the Gatorade Company the notified the Cumberland native that he was the 2018-19 Gatorade Rhode Island Boys Basketball Player of the Year. Kolek is currently hooping it up at St. George’s in Middletown after spending the previous three seasons at Cumberland High School, where he earned all-state honors as a junior.

The 6-foot-2, 180-pound junior guard averaged 18.6 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.5 steals per game this past season, leading the Dragons (16-9) to the New England Prep School Athletic Council Class B Tournament quarterfinals. Earlier this month, Kolek was named MVP of the Independent School League and a NEPSAC Class B All-Star this season.

“Tyler Kolek is a stud,” said Lamar Reddicks, head coach of Milton Academy. “He can score at all three levels. He’s a very dangerous shooter with an extremely quick release. The bigger the game, the better he played.”

Kolek currently holds 10 scholarship offers from Division I schools, the list including nearby Bryant University. In addition to his hoop talents, Kolek also finds time to volunteer at the local Boys & Girls Club as a youth basketball coach. Kolek has maintained a B average in the classroom and represents one of the state’s top academic candidates in meeting the Gatorade award’s broad criteria. He will begin his senior year of high school this fall, after concluding a spring/summer session on the AAU circuit with the Middlesex Magic.