Photos by Ray Hamill./HumboldtSports.com – Madelyn Shanahan

By Ray Hamill — It’s been a year that one Little 4 junior won’t easily forget, and she’s not done yet.

On Tuesday, St. Bernard’s standout Madelyn Shanahan was named co-MVP of the league in basketball, earning the award along with her sophomore teammate Laila Florvilus.

Remarkably, this is the third Little 4 MVP award for Shanahan this year, having also been named the top player in league in both soccer and volleyball.

“Madelyn was an amazing defender who blocked shots and rebounded, while also having the ability to play all five positions offensively while scoring from anywhere on the court,” St. Bernard’s head coach Matt Tomlin said of the versatile and unselfish star after the all-league selections were announced on Tuesday.

This week’s award follows the two MVP nods she received within a week of each other back in November.

And, according to her volleyball coach Wendy Joyner, Shanahan’s talents on multiple sports fronts is only part of what makes her the student athlete she is.

“Maddy is a natural leader,” Joyner said after the volleyball season. “She’s not complacent, she works hard and strives to improve every day.”

She’s also one of the smartest athletes in the Little 4.

“Maddy is a special player. She is like having another coach on the field,” SB soccer coach Brian Finck said back in November after she was named co-MVP of the L4 in soccer along with South Fork’s Summer Contreras and Ferndale’s Reaghan Langer. “She is intelligent, hard-working determined, motivates her teammates and leads by example. Everything a coach could ask for in a player.”

Shanahan led the Crusaders to an 8-0 league record in volleyball and lost just once in Little 4 soccer, before capping a hugely successful fall by helping the SB girls win a third consecutive North Coast Section championship in soccer.

She followed that this winter by helping lead the Crusaders to a Little 4 championship in basketball and a record of 21-6, which was the most wins in a single season in program history.

And her successful year in sports is not done yet.

Shanahan will now turn her attention to track and field, where she will be hoping to pick up just where she left off a year ago.

In 2022, the SB standout was the only Little 4 athlete to qualify for the prestigious North Coast Section Meet of Champions.

At the NCS Class A meet, she placed first in the discus, second in the triple jump and seventh in the long jump.

The local track and field season is scheduled to get under way in a meet at Cal Poly Humboldt next Wednesday.

Submitted photo – St. Bernard’s Madelyn Shanahan at last year’s Class A championships, along with Crusaders coaches Joe Cornely and Dana Fahey.