For the most part, the finalists for this year’s Best of Preps Female Athlete of the Year award were single-minded in their focus. The majority of the six finalists were not multisport athletes, but each one definitely dominated her sport of preference.
Because of coronavirus concerns, this year’s banquet will be held online rather than in a banquet setting. The virtual Best of Preps banquet will be shown on both the Times Free Press Facebook page as well as timesfreepress.com at 7 p.m. Thursday.
The six finalists are Heritage’s Rachel Gibson, East Hamilton’s Madison Hayes, Signal Mountain’s Camilla Mincey, Gordon Lee’s Gracie O’Neal, Hixson’s Abby Rector and Bradley Central’s Anna Walker.
Gibson, a junior pitcher, backed up her GHSA player of the year honor from 2018 by leading Heritage to a second Class AAAA softball state championship this past fall. The future Clemson Tiger won 23 games with a 0.95 ERA, allowing only 78 hits and striking out 296 batters while walking just 37 in 161 innings. Gibson, voted the Class AAAA pitcher of the year by state coaches, was at her best in the postseason, allowing three earned runs in seven games while striking out 70 batters in 36 innings, including a 16-strikeout gem in a semifinal against Oconee County.
Hayes, a two-sport star, led her volleyball team in kills as an outside hitter and is a three-time all-region player. Her future, however, is in basketball, where she became one of the Chattanooga area’s most decorated athletes of all time. The versatile 6-foot-1 guard and Mississippi State signee was named a McDonald’s All American, the Gatorade state player of the year and a USA Today All-American, and she earned a second straight Tennessee Class AAA Miss Basketball award after averaging 26 points, 12 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks per game. She finished her prep career as the state’s No. 3 all-time leading scorer with 3,057 points to go along with 1,582 rebounds, 516 assists, 471 steals and 305 blocks. She also helped the national 3-on-3 18-under team win a FIBA World Cup gold medal.