AURORA | The Colorado Gatorade Player of the Year award stays in the Betts family, as Grandview High School sophomore Sienna Betts received the honor Wednesday, after her sister, Lauren, won the previous two.
Sienna Betts continued the tradition with an outstanding season in which she has been a big factor as the Wolves have advanced to the Final Four for the seventh consecutive season.
The 6-foot-4 Betts is coming off a 23-point effort in Grandview’s Great 8 victory over No. 3 Highlands Ranch on March 4 at the Denver Coliseum, a game which the Wolves won with only two players that were on the court for their championship victory the previous season.
Betts’ value to her team goes well beyond statistics, but there are very few of those in which she does not lead the 6A classification or the entire state.
She is by far Colorado’s most prolific rebounder at 16.2 per contest and she paces 6A in shot blocking (3.7 per contest) and is second in scoring average at 21.6 with a chance to move into the top spot depending on her performance in the March 10 semifinals against Cherry Creek and possibly the March 11 state championship game.
Gatorade also factors in off the court elements and Betts owns a 4.38 weight Grade Point Average, while she also dominates time at Ronald McDonald House in Denver, coaches youth basketball and has volunteered by assembling hygiene kits for the homeless.
Grandview has two multiple-time Gatorade Colorado Players of the Year in Michaela Onyenwere, a three-time winner in 2015, 2016 and 2017, and Lauren Betts, winner of the last two. Sienna Betts now has a change to win three times as well.
Other girls basketball players from Aurora programs to win Gatorade’s Colorado Player of the Year award (which began in 1985) are Francesca Belibi — current Stanford teammate of her sister, Lauren — in 2019, Justine Hall (2014) and Diani Akigbogun (2013), all of Regis Jesuit.
Betts is also scheduled to participate in the A-Town All-Star Game March 18.
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports