GIRLS PLAYER OF THE YEAR FINALISTS — ‘Iron sharpens iron’

By barstoolfanatics on March 23, 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Isis Poteet

By Ray Hamill — An H-DNL girls team won a state championship in basketball for the first time in league history this season, but it was the quality of teams from top to bottom in the league that was the real story this year.

And shortly after guiding the St. Bernard’s girls to that historic title, head coach Matt Tomlin paid tribute to the entire league for the role all the teams played in helping the Crusaders achieve that.

“I want to give a shoutout to the H-DN girls basketball teams this year,” he said. “We could not have won a state championship without them.

“Iron sharpens iron, and we got better by playing H-DN teams this year.”

The fact that the Crusaders’ most difficult games came against local teams instead of their out-of-area playoff opponents would suggest Tomlin is right.

And with such a talented group of teams in the H-DNL this season, all nine of which qualified for the playoffs, naturally there was a deep pool of players to choose from for our list of finalists for the 2023/24 Humboldt Sports Girls Player of the Year.

So here then are our list of six finalists for girls player of the year.

The award encompasses not just the players’ talents and achievements, but how they carry themselves on and off the court, their importance to their team, their leadership and their impact on the season.

All decisions are made by Humboldt Sports, in conjunction with feedback from coaches throughout the year.

We’ll announce our boys and girls players of the year next week, along with our boys and girls teams of the year and boys and girls coaches of the year.