Hoover senior Reniya Kelly named Gatorade player of year
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Hoover senior Reniya Kelly named Gatorade player of year

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Hoover senior and North Carolina signee Reniya Kelly has been named the Gatorade Alabama Girls Basketball Player of the Year.

Kelly led the Bucs to their third straight Class 7A title last week. Hoover defeated Sparkman 55-44 in the championship game. Kelly scored 25 points in the win and was named tournament MVP.

“She’s the best player in Hoover High School history,” Bucs coach Krystle Johnson said after the game. “She’s the best basketball player in the state and has been for the last three years.”

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The 5-foot-7 senior guard led the Bucs to a 35-1 record this season. She averaged 14.7 points, five assists, five rebounds and 2.5 steals per game. She is the reigning Alabama Sports Writers Association Class 7A Player of the Year and a contender for the state’s Miss. Basketball Award this season.

“Reniya is elite,” said John Smelser, head coach of rival Vestavia Hills High School, in a Gatorade press release. “She is looking to create for teammates, but she is also capable of getting a bucket whenever she wants. It is no fun trying to gameplan to stop her because she can do so much more than score.”

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 and field.

A National Player of the Year is also awarded 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.

The boys basketball player of the year for each state will be announced next week.

Kelly joins a list of previous Alabama winners that includes Hazel Green’s Samiya Steele, Muscle Shoals’ Sara Puckett, Spain Park’s Sarah Ashlee Barker and Pisgah’s Annie Hughes.