CHICAGO (March 15, 2019) — In its 34th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company Friday day announced Mason Walters of Jamestown High School as its 2018-19 Gatorade North Dakota Boys Basketball Player of the Year. Walters is the first Gatorade North Dakota Boys Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from Jamestown 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 Walters as North Dakota’s best high school boys basketball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year award to be announced in March, Walters joins an elite alumni association of past state boys basketball award winners, including Karl-Anthony Towns (2012-13 & 2013-14, St. Joseph High School, N.J.), Dwight Howard (2003-04, Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy, Ga.), Chris Bosh (2001-02, Lincoln High School, Texas), Paul Pierce (1994-95, Inglewood High School, Calif.), Chauncey Billups (1993-94 & 1994-95, George Washington High School, Colo.) and Jason Kidd (1991-92, St. Joseph Notre Dame High School, Calif.).

 

The 6-foot-7, 205-pound senior forward led the Blue Jays to a perfect 27-0 record and the Class A state championship this past season. Walters averaged 21.1 points, 11.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game, converting 68.2 percent of his field goal attempts. The Western Dakota Association co-Senior Athlete of the Year, he was named MVP of the Class A state tournament.
A devoted member of his church youth group, Walters has volunteered locally on behalf of Meals on Wheels and youth sports programs. “Walters is very good on both ends of the floor,” said Daved Lundeen, head coach at Williston High. “He’s a nightmare for anyone in the state to guard in the low post, and he’s extremely efficient. He rebounds and defends the rim better than anyone.”

Walters has maintained a 3.79 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball on scholarship at the University of Jamestown 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.

 

The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which work with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.

Walters joins Gatorade North Dakota Boys Basketball Players of the Year Joe Pistorius (2017-18, West Fargo High School), Aanen Moody (2016-17 & 2015-16, Dickinson High School), and Carter Kretchman (2014-15, Oak Grove Lutheran High School) among the state’s list of former award winners.
As a part of Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Walters also has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of his choosing. He 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, visit www.Gatorade.com/POY, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Gatorade.