Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — Our list of finalists for the 2023 Humboldt Sports Little 4 Girls Athlete of the Year includes five MVPs.

All five finalists are coming off sensational seasons for their respective schools, and four schools are represented on the prestigious list.

In fairness, you could make a good case for any one of them and all are well-deserved inclusions.

A big shoutout to Mendes Supply, DelReka Distributing and The Stove Doctors in McKinleyville for helping to sponsor this year’s awards and pay for the trophies.

Thanks to their generosity all of our award winners this year — including Big 5 girls and boys athletes of the year, Little 4 boys and girls athletes of the year, and H-DNL coach of the year and team of the year — will receive a trophy or plaque to commemorate their achievements.

We’ll be announcing all of our category finalists in the coming days, and we will begin announcing the winners in all six categories late next week.

Here then are our finalists for the 2023 Humboldt Sports Little 4 Girls Athlete of the Year, all of whom are multi-sport athletes.

Tatianna Colegrove

Hoopa, Senior

Colegrove is a three-sport standout and was an inspirational team leader on all three teams.

She was named Little 4 MVP in softball, while also receiving all-league first-team selections in volleyball and basketball.

Summer Contreras

South Fork, Senior

Another three-sport star who had her senior season cut short due to an injury at the end of the soccer season.

But that doesn’t take from how good an athlete Contreras has been for the Cubs for the past few years.

She was a league co-MVP in soccer this year and would likely have added all-league selections in basketball and softball had she been able to play those sports.

Laila Florvilus

St. Bernard’s, Sophomore

A co-MVP in basketball and a league champion in track and field, few competitors in the entire H-DNL can match Florvilus’ athleticism.

And all of that in her sophomore year.

Florvilus provided the perfect one-two punch with teammate Madelyn Shanahan in basketball and followed that with a league championship in the girls 100 meter hurdles.

Reaghan Langer

Ferndale, Junior

Langer also was a co-MVP in soccer and received an all-league honorable mention in basketball, although you could argue she deserved better than that in the latter considering the role she played on a challenging yet memorable playoff run for the Cats.

More than one coach has suggested to me that Langer is Ferndale’s most dangerous athlete.

Madelyn Shanahan

St. Bernard’s, Junior

The multi-talented Shanahan had a year for the ages in four sports.

She was remarkably named MVP in both soccer and volleyball in the fall, and she followed that with a co-MVP award in basketball in the winter and three league titles in track and field in the spring — in the discus, the long jump and the triple jump.

And she’s only a junior.