Wayne Grandy
MOULTRIE — Colquitt County seniors Nate Hill and Umeika Henry have been named to the All-Region 1-AAAAA first teams selected by the league’s coaches.
Lady Packer Persephone Taylor was named to the girls second team.
Hill led the Packers in scoring and rebounding this season and finished his career with 1,459 points, surpassing Alfred Brown, Jamey Richardson and John Michael Hall as the most prolific scorer in Colquitt County High boys basketball history.
Hill, a three-time All-Region selection, averaged nearly 17 points in region games this season.
Hill play will for the South team in the all-star game featuring top players from South Georgia and Middle Georgia that will be played at 8:30 p.m. on March 20 at the Charles Cooper Gymnasium at Lowndes.
Henry was named to the All-Region team for the second year in a row after averaging 13.6 points a game. She was named to the second team as a junior last season.
Valdosta junior Jay Rome was named the boys Player of the Year for the second year in a row after averaging 24 points and 11 rebounds a game. The 6-foot-6, 220-pounder is a three-time All-Region selection.
Perhaps Rome’s most memorable game came in this year’s Region 1-AAAAA tournament consolation game in which he scored a career-high 52 points in a loss to Coffee.
The Trojans’ Trevis Simpson, who joins Hill and Rome on the All-Region first team, scored 47 points in that game.
Kingston Clark, who led Lowndes to fourth place in the regular season and second place in the region tournament, was named the boys Coach of the Year.
Also on the boys first team are Greg Fields of Northside, Robert Powell and Lowndes and Justin Sanders of Coffee.
The boys second team includes Brian Wright of Lowndes; T.S. Whitmore of Warner Robins; Breon Dixon and Vernon Moore of Tift County; and Buddy Bivins of Houston County. Tift County’s Colby Neloms received honorable mention.
Region regular-season and tournament champion Northside of Warner Robins took home the top two girls awards when Tai Brown was named the Player of the Year and Casaundra Wilson was selected as the Coach of the Year.
Also named to the girls first team were Kiera Peak and Amanda Harper of Lowndes; Danielle Gazaway of Warner Robins; and Veneeshia Paulk of Coffee.
Peak averaged 24 points and 15 rebounds for the Vikettes and finished her career with more than 1,000 points and 800 rebounds.
Joining Taylor on the girls second team are Amber McKenzie of Tift County; LaDarria Clark of Northside; Keyonna Armstrong of Warner Robins; and Natalia Stevens of Houston County.
Northside’s Chann Fann received honorable mention.
