CHICAGO (March 9, 2022) — In its 37th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Jennah Isai of Valley Vista High School is the 2021-22 Gatorade Arizona Girls Basketball Player of the Year. Isai is the third Gatorade Arizona Girls Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from Valley Vista 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 court, distinguishes Isai as Arizona’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, Isai joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Skylar Diggins-Smith (2008-09, Washington High School, Ind.), Nneka Ogwumike (2007-08, CyFair High School, Texas), Maya Moore (2006-07, Collins Hill High School, Ga.), Candace Parker (2002-03 & 2003-04, Naperville Central High School, Ill.), and Lisa Leslie (1989-90, Morningside High School, Calif.).

The 6-foot senior guard led the Monsoon to a 25-5 record and the Class 6A state championship this past season. Isai averaged 25.8 points, 7.7 rebounds, 4.6 steals and 2.7 assists per game. A two-time All-State honoree, she was also named to the All-Tournament team at the Nike Tournament of Champions and is ranked as the nation’s No. 36 prospect in the Class of 2022 by ESPN.

Isai has served as an elementary school tutor and has volunteered locally on behalf of the Special Olympics and youth basketball programs. “Jennah Isai can do literally anything on the basketball court,” said A.J. Greenough, head coach at Chandler High School. “She can create her own shot on the perimeter or in the paint better than anyone I’ve seen in Arizona, and she can guard anyone from a point guard to a post player without help.”

Isai has maintained a weighted 4.28 GPA in the classroom. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball on scholarship at the University of Oregon 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 leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the state winners in each sport.

Isai joins recent Gatorade Arizona Girls Basketball Players of the Year Marisa Davis (2020-21, Valley Vista High School), Alyssa Brown (2019-20, Sahuaro High School), Dominique Phillips (2018-19, Millennium High School), and Taylor Chavez (2017-18, Valley Vista High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.

Gatorade has a long-standing history of serving athlete communities and understands how sports instill valuable lifelong skills on and off the field. Through Gatorade’s “Play it Forward” platform, Middleton has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national organization of their choosing that helps young athletes realize the benefits of playing sports. Middleton is also eligible to submit a short video explaining why the organization they chose is deserving of one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants, which will be announced throughout the year. To date, Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants have totaled more than $3.5 million across more than 1,300 organizations.

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 studentathletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com or follow us on social media on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY, Instagram at instagram.com/Gatorade and Twitter at twitter.com/Gatorade.