TATUM, MCLAUGHLIN NAMED ATHLETES OF YEAR
Basketball standout, U.S. Olympian earn Gatorade accolades
From multiple gold medals with USA Basketball to clocking times on the track faster than any other female high school sprinter in the country, Jayson Tatum and Sydney McLaughlin are not new to accolades at the highest level.
Still, when Tatum and McLaughlin were named Gatorade Male and Female Athletes of the Year on Tuesday at L.A. Hotel, both said their newest hardware easily topped the list.
Tatum, a forward who recently began summer school at Duke, scored 40 or more points in six games last season, including 40 to lead Chaminade College Prep (St. Louis) to the Missouri Class 5 state title.
Tatum, who finished high school No. 3 overall in the ESPN 100 recruiting rankings, averaged 29.5 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. He won gold medals with USA Basketball’s under-19, under-17 and under-16 teams and is one of the keys to Duke’s topranked recruiting class.
“Wow! What can I say?” Tatum said. “My parents and my grandmother always reminded me to keep God first. I want to thank my parents; I owe them the world. ... I want to thank my high school teammates, my teammates at Duke and Coach K.”
On Sunday, McLaughlin, a rising senior at Union Catholic (Scotch Plains, N.J.), became the first American 16-year-old since Rhonda Brady (1976) to qualify for an Olympic track event when she finished third in the 400-meter hurdles in the U.S. trials in Eugene, Ore. Her time of 54.15 seconds set a world junior record.
“It’s a huge honor,” McLaughlin said. “I didn’t think I would make it here. Two weeks into the track season I found out I had mono; that wasn’t a great start to my season. Then my mom had a heart attack. They say every Olympian has two or three major struggles, and I was having all of these struggles.
“Then I had a major panic attack on Sunday and I called my dad, and my coach said just, ‘Get on the line.’ I did that, and I’m an Olympian.”
Tatum and McLaughlin beat out Gatorade National Players of the Year in girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball and boys track and field.
The Gatorade Athlete of the Year award recognizes athletic excellence as well as academic achievement and exemplary character. USA TODAY High School Sports administrates the nationwide selection process in collaboration with Gatorade.