Young, Fofana headline All-District honors
Published 10:09 pm Friday, February 23, 2018
- Nylah Young was selected as the Player of the Year in the Southeastern District. She averaged 20.6 points and 14 rebounds for the King’s Fork High School this season. (Matthew Hatfield Photo)
Suffolk had a total of six ladies represented on the Southeastern District girls’ basketball teams.
The 2017-2018 season of high school basketball saw a handful of solid individual seasons for Suffolk girls’ basketball talent. That led to six total players being selected between both the first and second teams.
King’s Fork High School girls’ basketball team, the co-champion of the district, had four honorees. Leading the way was Nylah Young, who earned the Player of the Year award. Young averaged 20.4 points per game to go with 14 rebounds, and six steals a game. She hit a career-high 41 points this season against rival Nansemond River High School.
It was clear that Young was a dominant force for the Lady Bulldogs and will be essential to their playoff run going forward. The Lady Bulldogs also had the Conference Player of the Year last year with Amesha Miller.
“I am very honored and grateful for this opportunity,” Young said. “It has always been a goal of mine, and I just worked as hard as I could to achieve it. With the help of my teammates, I was able to do it.”
Senior Camary Harris also represented King’s Fork on the first team, while Neecole Brown and Brianna Copeland made the second team. Harris averaged 15.5 points and eight assists and seven steals. She was especially excited to receive the honor this year after teammates and coaches felt she was wrongfully left off of the list as a junior last season.
“It feels very good,” Harris said. “I’ve put in so much work after the finish we had last year. It left a bad taste in my mouth, and all the work paid off.”
King’s Fork coach Maurice Fofana won the Coach of the Year award in the district. Fofana led the Lady Bulldogs to a 17-1 record and the No. 1 seed in the Class 4 Region A tournament.
Lady Warriors standout Briana Autrey also made first team all-district for Nansemond River High School. The Lady Warriors had a significant amount of their talent graduate from last year’s team. Even though they finished with an 8-10 record, Autrey was a clear top talent in the district.
Kayla Barnes was selected to the second team all-district for Lakeland High School. Barnes was the top scorer for the Lady Cavs this season and accomplished a career milestone in reaching 1,000 career points this season.
Suffolk totaled three players for honorable mention as well. Amari Mason and Torre Williams of Lakeland received honorable mention, and Taylor Paquette of Nansemond River was selected as an honorable mention as well. Final standings for Suffolk schools were King’s Fork tied for first, Nansemond River tied for fifth and Lakeland tied for ninth.