Grandview’s Lauren Betts has been a standout girls basketball player for the last three seasons, so it’s no surprise that awards are going to fall into her possession.
Betts was named the Colorado girls basketball player of the year by Gatorade on Thursday. She is the second Grandview player in the last five years to receive the honor. Michaela Onyenwere was named the player of the year in 2017, just before she embarked on a successful collegiate career at UCLA.
Like Onyenwere, Betts will land in the Pac-12, but she’ll be more to the northern side of California as she’ll join three other Colorado standouts at Stanford. Discovery Canyon’s Ashten Prechtel, Regis Jesuit’s Fran Belibi and Cherry Creek’s Jan Van Gytenbeek all helped the Cardinal claim the 2021 NCAA championship and are excited to Betts join the program.
But before she does that, she’ll have to play her senior season at Grandview. As a junior, Betts averaged 17.5 points and 11 rebounds per game. The Wolves looked nearly unstoppable throughout the season, but ended up losing in the Class 5A semifinals to Regis Jesuit.
For her career, she’s averaging 15.7 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. She has already made a huge impact for USA basketball as she helped the U-16 team claim a gold medal at FIBA Americas two years ago. She is currently ranked the No. 1 recruit in the country for the class of 2022 by ESPN.
Off the court she remains involved with her community as she’s volunteered with Project C.U.R.E. and also worked with the Ronald McDonald House in Denver, serving as a youth basketball coach.
“Lauren is like no other player that I have ever been around,” Cherry Creek coach Clint Evans said in Gatorade’s release. “I have game-planned for kids in the past, but Lauren is different because you game plan your defense and your offense around her. Her size is obviously the thing that makes her stand out, but it’s what she can do at that size that makes her the most difficult player to go against.”
Grandview is hoping that trend continues for the 2021-22 season when it will once again take aim at winning a girls basketball state championship.
