Southwest Florida High School Sports Awards past winners stood out in 2024

Javian McCollum is at his third college.

The 2020 Southwest Florida High School Sports Awards Boys Basketball Player of the Year played his first two college years at Siena, scoring 6.7 points a game in 2021-22 and 15.9 a year later.

Before last season, he transferred to Oklahoma in the Big 12 and averaged 13.3 points. And before this season, he moved to Georgia Tech in the ACC.

As a senior, McCollum has started five games for the Yellow Jackets, and played in 13. He is averaging 12.5 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game. The rebounding average is a career high.

Georgia Tech has some work to do if it is going to make the NCAA Tournament this year. It is 8-9 overall and 2-4 in the ACC for 13^th place in the 18-team league.

The 2024-25 Southwest Florida High School Sports Awards, Presented by Elevate Home Services, are on May 29 at Suncoast Credit Union Arena. Tickets will be available soon.

Overall, it was a solid year for former winners of the Southwest Florida HSSA program. Here are some examples …

Tavin Ward, 2021 Offensive Football Player of the Year

As a junior at South Florida, Ward was a key contributor at defensive back. He had 61 tackles, with three interceptions and two fumble recoveries. Arguably his best game came in the Hawaii Bowl against San Jose State, when he had 10 tackles with an interception.

Paris Thompson, 2020 Girls Volleyball Player of the Year

After playing at Notre Dame from 2021-23, Thompson transferred to Alabama this year for her senior season. She was one of its top players, with 272 kills, 65 digs and 30 blocks.

Mason Laur, 2020 Boys Swimming and Diving Player of the Year

Laur had a big 2024, participating in the US Olympics Swimming & Diving Trials, finishing third in the 200 butterfly in 1:55.37. He also competed in a heat of the 200 individual medley. Prior to that, he competed in his junior season for Florida, making the school’s all-time top 10 list in two events with the ninth best all-time time in the 200-yard butterfly in 1:42:15 and the fifth all-time time in the 400-yard individual medley in 3:37.98.

Sabyne Brisson, 2021 Girls Swimming and Diving nominee

Brisson had a fantastic freshman season at Georgia Tech, swimming in the finals of two events in the ACC Meet, finishing 6^th in the 100 breast and 9^th in the 200 breast. She then swam in the prelims of those events at the NCAA Championships.

Jake Chaney, 2020 Defensive Football nominee

Chaney is a bit of a unicorn in college football these days, because he played all four seasons at one school – in this case the University of Wisconsin. This year as a senior, he played in 11 games, making 10 starts at inside linebacker. He was fourth on the team with 55 tackles and had multiple tackles in every game he played.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY High School Sports Wire: Southwest Florida High School Sports Awards past POYs stood out in 2024