CHICAGO (June 4, 2021) — In its 36th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Trevor Keels of Paul VI Catholic High School as its 2020-21 Gatorade Virginia Boys Basketball Player of the Year. Keels is the first Gatorade Virginia Boys Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from Paul VI Catholic 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 Keels as Virginia’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, Keels 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-4, 190-pound senior guard led the Panthers to a 7-4 record this past season. Keels averaged 28.7 points, 9.1 rebounds, 7.2 assists and 3.8 steals per game. A McDonald’s All-American Game invitee, he is ranked as the nation’s No. 19 recruit in the Class of 2021 by ESPN.com. The Washington Catholic Athletic Conference Player of the Year as a sophomore, Keels is a two-time First Team Washington Post All-Met selection. He concluded his prep basketball career with 1,803 points, 632 rebounds and 412 assists.
Keels is a board member of Sharing Shoes, a non-profit organization that provides basketball shoes to children in need. He has volunteered locally as part of community beautification projects at St. Dominic’s Monastery in Linden, Va., and he has donated his time with both the Special Olympics and as a youth basketball coach. “Trevor Keels brings a college-ready body and elite outside shooting skills to the floor,” said Paul Biancardi, ESPN National Recruiting Director. “He can beat opponents with his physicality or his finesse game as he can score behind the arc or finish through contact at the rim. He is a highly competitive player with an impressive basketball IQ.”
Keels has maintained a B-plus average in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball on scholarship at Duke 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.
Keels joins recent Gatorade Virginia Boys Basketball Players of the Year Jeremy Roach (2019-20, Paul VI Catholic High School), Cole Anthony (2018-19, Oak Hill Academy), Keldon Johnson (2017-18, Oak Hill Academy), and Matt Coleman (2016-17, Oak Hill Academy), among the state’s list of former award winners.
Through Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Keels has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of their choosing. Keels 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 www.playeroftheyear.gatorade.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Gatorade.
