AURORA | The team result was unlike any Grandview’s Sienna Betts had experienced in her high school career, but the junior star earned a familiar accolade Thursday.
The 6-foot-4 Betts won her second straight Colorado Gatorade Player of the Year award, the organization announced, and it matched her with older sister Lauren, who also received the accolade in back-to-back seasons in 2021 and 2022.
The Wolves had a string of two consecutive state championships come to an end with a loss to Centennial League rival Mullen in the Class 6A Sweet 16 — which snapped an 11-game postseason winning streak for the program — but Sienna Betts helped elevate a team that had a significant amount of turnover.
Betts committed to UCLA before her junior season, in which she averaged 22.5 points, 15.6 rebounds, 4.6 assist, 3.3 blocked shots and 2.2 steals per contest for coach Josh Ulitzky’s Grandview team, which finished 14-10. Her scoring and rebounding averages put her atop all players in 6A, while she ranked third in blocked shots and fifth in assists.
Upping her scoring, assists and steals per game from the previous season — despite massive attention from the opposition in each game — Betts was the Centennial League’s Player of the Year and also garnered the Colorado honor from MaxPreps.
Gatorade — which uses a panel of coaches, scouts, media and others to determine each state’s winner — also factors in off the court elements and Betts owns a 4.33 weighted Grade Point Average, while she also donates time at Ronald McDonald House in Denver and volunteers with Special Olympics.
Grandview now has three multiple-time Gatorade Colorado Players of the Year in Michaela Onyenwere, a three-time winner in 2015, 2016 and 2017, and the Betts sisters.
Other girls basketball players from Aurora programs to win Gatorade’s Colorado Player of the Year award (which began in 1985) are Francesca Belibi in 2019, Justine Hall (2014) and Diani Akigbogun (2013), all of Regis Jesuit.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports