CHICAGO — In its 36th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today
announced Carlos Stewart of Dunham School as its 2020-21 Gatorade Louisiana Boys Basketball Player of the Year.
Stewart is the first Gatorade Louisiana Boys Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from Dunham 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 Stewart as Louisiana’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 June, Stewart joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Jayson Tatum (2015-16, Chaminade College Preparatory School, Mo.), Karl-Anthony Towns (2012-13 & 2013-14, St. Joseph High School, N.J.), Jabari Parker (2011-12, Simeon Career Academy, Ill.) and Dwight Howard (2003-04, Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy, Ga.).
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound senior guard led the Tigers to a 19-11 record and the Division III state championship this past season.
Stewart averaged 31.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 3.2 steals per game while connecting on 43.9 percent of his 3-point shots. A two-time Class 2A Player of the Year and the MVP of the 2021 state championship game, he concluded his prep basketball career with 2,145 points.
Stewart has volunteered locally delivering boxes of food to families in need, and he has donated his time as a youth basketball coach.
“Carlos Stewart displays a terrific pull-up jumper with balance and focus,” said Paul Biancardi, ESPN
National Recruiting Director. “Stewart knows how to get buckets. He is capable behind the arc with a strong body to finish at the rim.”
Stewart has maintained a 3.29 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a national letter of intent to play basketball on scholarship at Santa Clara 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.
The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which works with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.
Stewart joins recent Gatorade Louisiana Boys Basketball Players of the Year Reece Beekman (2019-20, Scotlandville Magnet High School), Jalen Cook (2018-19, Walker High School), and Ja’Vonte Smart (2017-18 & 2016-17, Scotlandville Magnet High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.
Through Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Stewart has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of their choosing. Stewart is also eligible to submit a 30-second 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 $2.7
million across 1,117 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 student-athletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/Gatorade
