Ace Austin from three-time defending Class 1A state champion Spring Garden High School has been announced as the 2024-25 Gatorade Alabama Girls Basketball Player of the Year. She was the first student-athlete from the Northeast Alabama school to be honored with the Gatorade award when she was honored last season. The award is now in its 40th year of honoring the nation’s “most elite high school athletes,” according to a news release.

The 5-foot-8 senior guard, who has signed with the University of Alabama, led the Panthers to a 36-1 record and a third straight Class 1A state championship this season. Austin averaged 26.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, including a 40-point effort in her prep finale, a 73-43 win over Brilliant High in the state final. The two-time Class 1A Player of the Year and the state’s 2024 Miss Basketball winner, Austin is ranked as the nation’s No. 39 recruit in the Class of 2025 by 247Sports. She concluded her high school basketball career with 3,940 points, 1,430 assists, 1,379 rebounds and 861 steals, ranking No. 2 in state history in assists and steals as well as No. 7 in points.

An officer in her school’s Family, Career and Community Leaders of America chapter, Austin is a member of the yearbook staff and an Open House guide. She has volunteered locally with the Spring Garden High School Beta Club and as a youth basketball coach. “Ace is a phenomenal player and athlete,” said Deidra Cox, head coach of Cedar Bluff High School. “Her understanding and knowledge of the game is unreal. She is like having another coach out on the floor.”

Austin has maintained an “A” average in the classroom.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states across 12 different high school sports – 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.

Two-time winner Austin joins recent Gatorade Alabama Girls Basketball Players of the Year Reniya Kelly (2022-23, Hoover High School), Samiya Steele (2021-22, Hazel Green High School) and Sara Puckett (2020-21, Muscle Shoals High School) among the state’s list of former award winners.

As part of Gatorade’s commitment to breaking down barriers in sport, every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner. To date, the Gatorade Player of the Year program has provided more than $5.6 million in grants to winners across more than 2,000 organizations.