UVA signee Johnson named Gatorade POY in Virginia for second-straight season

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

In its 38th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade announced Virginia women’s basketball signee Kymora Johnson of St. Anne’s-Belfield School is the 2022-23 Gatorade Virginia Girls Basketball Player of the Year on Wednesday.

The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the court, distinguishes Johnson as Virginia’s best high school girls basketball player.

Johnson joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Kiki Rice (2021-22, Sidwell Friends School, Washington, D.C.), Paige Bueckers (2019-20, Hopkins High School, Minn.), Nneka Ogwumike (2007-08, CyFair High School, Texas), and Candace Parker (2003-04 & 2002-03, Naperville Central High School, Ill.).

The state’s returning Gatorade Player of the Year, the 5-foot-8 senior point guard had led the Saints to a 25-1 record and a berth in the Virginia Independent School Athletic Association Division I state tournament semifinals at the time of her selection. Johnson averaged 22.5 points, 7.8 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 4.4 steals per game through 26 contests. A three-time VISAA Division I All-State selection, Johnson is a 2023 McDonald’s All-American Game selection and she’s ranked as the nation’s No. 24 recruit in the Class of 2023 by ESPN.com.

Johnson has volunteered locally at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Virginia, and she has donated her time as a youth basketball coach. Johnson has maintained a 3.47 GPA in the classroom. She has signed a national letter of intent to play basketball on scholarship at the University of Virginia this fall.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport. The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the state winners in each sport.

Johnson joins Megan Walker (2016-17), Elizabeth Williams (2010-11), Kara Lawson (1998-99) and La’Keshia Frett (1992-93) on the list of two-time winners from the Commonwealth of Virginia. She is the third UVA signee to win the honor joining Breyana Mason (2013) and Monica Wright (2006).

Virginia has three players on its current roster to have been named the Gatorade State Player of the Year for their state. Sam Brunelle was Virginia’s in 2018. Mir McLean earned it for Maryland in 2020 and McKenna was Connecticut’s in 2017.