East Jessamine’s Emma Young named Donna Murphy Award winner

East Jessamine standout Emma Young has been named the recipient of this year’s Donna Murphy Award presented by the Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation.

Young, a senior who’s signed with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, became the school’s all-time leading scorer this season and was named a finalist for Miss Basketball. She set a single-game school record of 44 points on Feb. 16 and has led the Jaguars to the first 20-win girls’ season in Jessamine County history. They were scheduled to play No. 6 Mercer County in the 46th District finals on Thursday.

She will be formally recognized during the Mr. and Miss Basketball awards ceremony at the Lexington Center on March 15.

Young boasts a 3.46 GPA and hopes to graduate with honors. She’ll be the first person from her biological family to graduate high school and would like to study nursing or social work in college.

“The game of basketball is fun and has taught me so much more than I could ever imagine,” Young said in a news release. “I have become a leader, learned responsibility and realized that hard work and dedication pay off. These life skills will prepare me for the future.”

The award is named for and selected by Donna Murphy, an All-American at Newport who was the first player to be named Miss Basketball. Nineteen nominations were submitted from across the state to Murphy for the award, which was inaugurated last year as a way to recognize female basketball seniors who exemplify being a great student-athlete.

Morgan Rich, who played at Allen County-Scottsville and was among several players who transferred from the University of Kentucky in the fall, was the award’s first recipient.

This story was originally published February 26, 2016 at 10:11 AM with the headline "East Jessamine’s Emma Young named Donna Murphy Award winner."