BOSWELL NAMED GATORADE NEW MEXICO PLAYER OF THE YEAR
In its 34th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company today announced Carsyn Boswell of Carlsbad High School as its 2018-19 Gatorade New Mexico Girls Basketball Player of the Year. Boswell is the first Gatorade New Mexico Girls Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from Carlsbad High School.
The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Boswell as New Mexico’s best high school girls basketball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year award to be announced in March, Boswell joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Maya Moore (2005-06, Collins Hill High School, Ga.), Rashanda McCants (2004-05, Asheville High School, N.C.), Candace Parker (2001-02, 2002-03 & 2003-04, Naperville Central High School, Ill.), Diana Taurasi (1998-99 & 1999-00, Don Antonio Lugo High School, Calif.), Shyra Ely (1999-00, Ben Davis High School, Ind.), Katie Smith (1991-92, Logan High School, Ohio) and Lisa Leslie (1988-89, Morningside High School, Calif.).
The 5-foot-9 senior guard had led the Cavegirls to a 23-4 record and a berth in the Class 5A state tournament at the time of her selection. Boswell averaged 19.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.3 steals through 27 games. A three-time First Team All-State honoree and two-time District Player of the Year, she has also twice been selected to the USA TODAY’s ALL-USA New Mexico First Team.
A devoted member of her church community, Boswell has volunteered locally assisting the intellectually challenged. “Carsyn Boswell is an outstanding basketball player,” said Fernando Sanchez, head coach at Roswell High. “She’s one of the best shooters anywhere in the state of New Mexico, and the rest of her team really follows her lead.”
Boswell has maintained a 4.03 GPA in the classroom. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball on scholarship at Idaho State University 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. From the 12 national winners, one male and one female athlete are each named Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year. In all, 607 athletes are honored each year.
Boswell joins Gatorade New Mexico Girls Basketball Players of the Year Amaya Brown (2017-18 & 2015-16, Cibola High School), Jaedyn De La Cerda (2016-17, Roswell High School), and Danni Williams (2014-15 & 2013-14, Clovis High School) as athletes who have recently won the basketball award.
As a part of Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Boswell also has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of her choosing. She is also eligible to submit an essay to win one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants for the organization of choice, which will be announced throughout the year.
Since the program’s inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of professional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming coaches, business owners and educators.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visitwww.Gatorade.com/POY, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Gatorade.
*RELEASE COURTESY GATORADE/KISA MUGWANYA
photo courtesy Matthew Asher
