Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Jeff Meyer of Mendes Supply presents this year’s Little 4 Girls Athlete of the Year award to St. Bernard’s Madelyn Shanahan.

By Ray Hamill — As the summer winds down, both of the Humboldt Sports 2023 Girls Athletes of the Year are preparing for new challenges.

Our Big 5 Girls Athlete of the Year, Kira Morris of Eureka High, is taking her talents to the collegiate softball fields and beginning a whole new chapter in her life.

Meanwhile, our Little 4 Girls Athlete of the Year, Madelyn Shanahan of St. Bernard’s, is back in high school where a busy senior year is already under way.

The winners, who were announced earlier in the summer, recently received their awards.

Jeff Meyer of Mendes Supply was on hand to present Shanahan with her award at St. Bernard’s, while Jennifer Perrone of DelReka Distributing presented the Big 5 award to Morris outside Eureka High.

And a huge thank you to Mendes Supply, DelReka Distributing and The Stove Doctors in McKinleyville for sponsoring this year’s awards.

Morris now heads south to Concordia University in Irvine, where she will pitch for the Division-II Golden Eagles, a perennial West Coast powerhouse.

The multi-sport standout competed in several sports during her time at Eureka High, but her favorite has always been softball. 

After an outstanding career for the Loggers, she will now get the chance to challenge herself at the next level at Concordia.

Shanahan, meanwhile, also is a multi-sport athlete and is finding different ways to challenge herself as a senior at St. Bernard’s.

Last year, she was named MVP of the Little 4 in volleyball, soccer and basketball before winning three H-DNL titles in track and field.

Jennifer Perrone of DelReka Distributing presents this year’s Big 5 Girls Athlete of the Year award to Eureka’s Kira Morris.

And if four sports weren’t enough, the busy SB standout says she might also compete in golf as a senior.

Good luck to both of this year’s award winners in their future endeavors.

Humboldt Sports will be presenting the Little 4 Boys Athlete of the Year trophy to Hoopa’s Gerard Marshall before this Saturday’s football game at St. Bernard’s.