Kentucky seniors go from the same little league to the same big award stage

Trevon Faulkner and Seygan Robins played grade-school basketball in Mercer County — in the same league.

They stopped sharing the same court at Mercer County, but they continued to walk the same halls. And on Tuesday they shared the same stage as their names were called as winners of the Mr. Basketball and Miss Basketball awards during the Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation’s Mr. and Miss Basketball ceremony at the Lexington Center.

It was the first time that both winners came from the same school. It was the first time that Mr. and Miss Basketball winners both came out of the same region since 2005, when Jeffersontown’s Domonic Tilford and Sacred Heart’s Carly Ormerod won out of the 7th Region (Jeffersontown now plays in the 6th Region). That was the third time that’s happened; Apollo’s Rex Chapman and Owensboro Catholic’s Kris Miller swept for the 3rd Region in 1986.

Faulkner, who’s signed with Northern Kentucky University, became the first player to win Mr. Basketball out of the 12th Region. Walt Allen played in the 12th Region at South Laurel but the Cardinals’ program was in its first season as a member of the 13th Region when he won the award in 2006.

Robins, a University of Louisville signee, became the third 12th Region player to win Miss Basketball, joining Rockcastle County’s Sara Hammond (2011) and Laurel County’s Lisa Collins (1980).

“We played against each other in little league,” Faulkner said of Robins. “She actually was in the boys’ league. I knew she was gonna be good, cause she was a great player then. I knew one day when she grew up, there were going to be some amazing things for her.

Faulkner’s prediction was right on the money; Robins scored more had more than 2,500 points, 800 assists and 500 steals in her career. She was twice named Sweet Sixteen MVP after leading Mercer County to its first and second girls’ state championships in 2017 and 2018. Mercer County went 127-19 over the last four seasons and won four straight 12th Region titles. It lost in the first round of the 2015 Sweet Sixteen and in the semifinals of the 2016 state tournament before becoming the 11th program to win back-to-back titles, and only the third county school to achieve that feat.

Faulkner finished his career as one of only seven boys in KHSAA history to finish with more than 3,000 points and 1,100 rebounds (the minimum amounts to be recorded in the historical records). Mercer County went 108-25 over the last four seasons. The Titans played in three straight 12^th Region championship games and reached the 2016 Sweet Sixteen, in which they lost to eventual champion Paul Laurence Dunbar in a first-round thriller.

Does Robins ever jokingly rub her rings in Faulkner’s face?

“Nah, she hasn’t,” Faulkner said. “She knows who’ll beat her in one-on-one.”

Robins didn’t help her cause.

“Oh yea, he definitely would,” Robins said with a laugh.

Josh Hamlin was an assistant on the girls’ coaching staff before taking the reins of the boys’ program season.

“To be able to coach both of them and both of them win Mr. and Miss Basketball, it’s just something that’s extremely special,” Hamlin said. “ ... You just can’t speak enough adjectives, or words, or whatever you want to say about those two kids.”

Robins is one of four nieces who’s played for Chris Souder in his 19 seasons as the head coach of Mercer County’s girls.

“She’s a true example of a servant leader,” Souder said. “She leads by example. She’s just a selfless player and gets everybody involved. She plays for her team instead of herself, and it just goes to show that ... you can do those things and be a Miss Basketball or a Mr. Basketball. I’m just so proud of ’em.”

This story was originally published March 14, 2018 at 1:54 PM with the headline "Kentucky seniors go from the same little league to the same big award stage."