Huntingdon High School held its basketball banquet at the Huntingdon Church of Christ to honor the student athletes that participated during the 2020-21 basketball season Thursday night. The banquet wasn’t held last year due to the pandemic, and it was the first banquet for second-year coaches David Wilkins and Porsche McClerking.
The banquet began with Julia Boyd recognizing the 2020-21 basketball cheerleaders with certificates of participation. Boyd noted that because of Covid constrictions, the girls were not able to cheer as often as they would have liked and were happy when a lot of the restrictions were lifted and they were allowed to cheer towards the end of the season.
Cheerleaders recognized at the banquet included Rylee Holladay, Ellia Lewis, Abby Lewis, Madison Noonan, Brooklyn Hudson, Adyson Shands, Tatum Nolen, Jenna McGee, Kayla Price, Ava Williams, LG Parish, Jazalyn McCord, and Madison Mann.
David Wilkins, the head coach for the Fillies, then recognized the Fillies basketball players and noted that although it was a trying year after losing three starters to graduation and dealing with the effect of Covid, this basketball team exhibited a lot of mental toughness and that is what got them through the season. He stated that the toughness of this basketball team showed up in the quarterfinals of the region when the Fillies were down by 19 points in the third quarter and fought their way back for a two-point win at the buzzer.
Wilkins then presented several individual awards for performance throughout the season, including:
•FREE THROW AWARD – Brooklyn Williams, who made 67-92 shots for a 73%.
•3 PT AWARD – Brooke Butler. 52-146 for a 36% shooting percentage.
•MOST ASSISTS – Lia Fuller with 54 assists for the year.
•HIGHEST FG % – Addison Postlethwait, who made 92-208 for a 44 shooting percentage.
•MOST DRAWN CHARGES – Shelby Childress with 10.
•MOST REBOUNDS – Sophie Singleton with 132 rebounds for the season.
•MOST STEALS – Brooklyn Williams with 91 for the season.
•COACHES AWARD – Sydney Anderson and Ashlyn Rich.
•ALL REGION – Brooklyn Williams and Addison Postlethwait.
•ALL DISTRICT – Addison Postlethwait, Brooke Butler, Brooklyn Williams, and Sophie Singleton.
•SENIOR AWARDS – Addison Postlethwait, Brooke Butler, and Brooklyn Williams.
Wilkins also recognized Brooke Butler for finishing her career with 808 points, which placed her 16th on the all-time scoring list. For her career Butler made 66-154 three-pointers.
Porsche McClerking, the Mustangs head coach, then recognized his basketball team and issued awards. McClerking stated how he was proud of this basketball team and how they got better as the season progressed, peaking at the right time, coming close to winning a district title, making it to the semifinals of the region, and almost advancing to the region final.
McClerking then presented the following awards:
•HUSTLE AWARD – Jeremiah Irvine, who drew 15 charges for the year and was fifth on the team in rebounding.
•NEWCOMER AWARD – Jeb Atkinson, who earned All-Region honors, was second on the team in scoring, and made 49 three-pointers for the season.
•COMEBACK AWARD -Blake Bradley, who was also an All-District player.
•BIG BOARD MOST IMPROVED AWARD – D’Allen McCord, who was named All-District and was one rebound and one point away from averaging a double double for the season.
•DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Javon Pritchard, who recorded 33 steals and had 140 deflections for the year.
•MOST IMPROVED – Keyshun Hoard, who was named All-Region and was second in rebounds and third on the team in scoring.
•COACHES AWARD – Milton Clark, who lead the team in assists.
•MUSTANG AWARD, MVP – Grant Bartholomew.
