Who will win Kentucky’s Mr. and Miss Basketball? We’ll find out Sunday. Watch here.
The long-anticipated announcement of the 2020 Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation’s Mr. and Miss Basketball winners will take place live online via Prepspin.com in a streaming ceremony beginning at 5 p.m. Sunday.
The virtual event comes after a high school basketball postseason interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, but voting for each award, which included ballots from coaches and members of the media, took place at the end of the regular season. The traditional ceremony in Lexington had to be canceled because of COVID-19.
The Mr. and Miss Basketball winners will receive a trophy, a yard sign depicting their ring and a Kentucky All-Stars No. 1 jersey at their homes and be interviewed live.
Seventeen boys and 19 girls were nominated for one of the state’s most prestigious individual awards and each were honored as Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches players or co-players of the year from each of Kentucky’s 16 regions. Over the last few weeks, the KABC and the Lions Eye Foundation have been delivering each player’s region plaques to their homes along with a corresponding yard sign. Photos of those visits are posted on the Mr. and Miss Kentucky Basketball Facebook page.
Ryle’s Maddie Scherr, an Oregon commit, two-time Kentucky Gatorade player of the year and a key figure in the Raiders’ 2019 state championship, leads a talented group of contenders for Miss Basketball, which also includes Kentucky commit Erin Toller out of Sacred Heart, Virginia Tech commit Shelby Calhoun from Christian Academy-Louisville and Eastern Kentucky commit Kendall Wingler of Meade County, among others.
A front-runner for Mr. Basketball is less obvious with noteworthy campaigns turned in from every corner of the state, including McCracken County’s Jackson Sivills (Murray State), Madisonville’s Kenny White (Tennessee Tech), John Hardin’s Alex Matthews (Evansville), Bardstown’s J.J. Traynor (Louisville), Collins’ Dayvion McKnight (Western Kentucky), Henry Clay’s Marques Warrick (Northern Kentucky) and South Laurel’s Matt Cromer (Eastern Kentucky).
The ceremony will be hosted by longtime University of Kentucky athletics commentator Christi Thomas and WKYT’s Brian Milam and will stream on both Prepspin.com and on Facebook. Limited questions for Mr. and Miss Basketball from the public can be posed on the Facebook page live stream as time permits.
All of the region winners will be recognized along with previously announced winners of several other honors, including inductees to the Kentucky All-Star Hall of Fame, 2007 Miss Kentucky Basketball winner Rebecca Gray Dyer, and sportswriter Billy Reed.
Marshall County’s Howard Beth will receive the Ralph M. Beard Lifetime Achievement Award. The Founders’ Coaching Award goes to Glen Drury, 2011 Kentucky All-Star coach. The William “Mr. Wildcat” Bill Keightley Award goes to Macon Wilson of Somerset. Scherr received the Donna LJ Murphy Award and Lawrence County’s Tyler Maynard earned the Wallace C. “Wah Wah” Jones Award.
The ceremony will also honor the 2019-20 Kentucky High School Athletic Association stats leader in several categories. The ceremony’s program can be viewed online at https://bit.ly/3i2kWnh.
In addition to the ceremony, the Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation is hosting an ongoing online auction at Givergy.us/MrandMissKYBball. The funds raised go to support the mission and work of the Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation. The auction ends at 10 p.m. (EDT) on Sunday.
An earlier version of this story listed the wrong school for Kenny White.
Mr. Basketball nominees and region players of the year
1st Region: Jackson Sivills, McCracken County.
2nd Region: Kenny White, Madisonville.
3rd Region: Kaeveon Mitchell, Breckinridge County.
4th Region: DAndre Boyd, Warren Central.
5th Region: Alex Matthews, John Hardin; JJ Traynor, Bardstown.
6th Region: Trey Minter, Butler.
7th Region: Tyren Moore, Male.
8th Region: Dayvion McKnight, Collins.
9th Region: Grant Disken, Covington Catholic.
10th Region: Amirion Joyce, Bourbon County.
11th Region: Marques Warrick, Henry Clay.
12th Region: Brayden Sebastian, Garrard County.
13th Region: Matt Cromer, South Laurel.
14th Region: Joe Benton, Estill County.
15th Region: Cody Potter, Shelby Valley.
16th Region: Sam O’Keefe, Lewis County.
Miss Basketball nominees and region players of the year
1st Region: Charlee Settle, Calloway County.
2nd Region: Emilee Hope, Henderson County.
3rd Region: Hannah McKay, Owensboro Catholic; Kendall Wingler, Meade County.
4th Region: Elizabeth Bertram, Barren County.
5th Region: Whitney Hay, Elizabethtown.
6th Region: Ta’Ziah Jenks, Mercy.
7th Region: Erin Toller, Sacred Heart; Shelby Calhoun, Christian Academy-Louisville.
8th Region: Maggie Jones, Simon Kenton.
9th Region: Maddie Scherr, Ryle.
10th Region: Kennedy Igo, Clark County.
11th Region: Malea Williams, Scott County
12th Region: Lauren Lee, Casey County.
13th Region: Ally Collett, South Laurel, Amerah Steele, South Laurel.
14th Region: Lexy Meyers, Leslie County.
15th Region: Katlyn Ball, Belfry.
16th Region: Julia Parker, Ashland Blazer.
KHSAA stats leaders
Scoring leaders: Kendall Wingler (Meade Co.) and Spencer Baird (Casey Co.)
Field goal leaders: Destiny Elliott (Prestonsburg) and Kaleb Glenn (Male)
Free throw leaders: Kendall Wingler (Meade Co.) and Brant Smithers (Walton-Verona)
Three-point leaders: Kendall Wingler (Meade Co.) and Jeremy Davis (Simon Kenton)
Rebounding leaders: Katie Ball (Belfry) and Rodrell Dryden (Greenup Co.)
This story was originally published June 27, 2020 at 9:06 AM.
