FASHION STATEMENT?--This photo illustration released by Adidas shows the uniforms for NCAA basketball teams, from left, University of Cincinnati, University of Kansas, University of Notre Dame, Baylor University, UCLA and the University of Louisville. (AP Photo/Adidas)

by Samantha Critchell

AP Fashion Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — It seems an unpopular position in college basketball is fashion forward.

EMOTIONAL FAREWELL—Shatori Walker-Kimbrough gets emotional as she leaves the court in her last high school game against South Park March 13. Walker- Kimbrough finished her outstanding high school career with 2,427 points.  (Courier Photos/William McBride)

CHICAGO—In its 28th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports, recently announced Shatori Walker-Kimbrough of Hopewell High School as its 2012-13 Gatorade Pennsylvania Girls Basketball Player of the Year.
The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the court, distinguishes Walker-Kimbrough as Pennsylvania’s best high school girls basketball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year award to be announced this week, Walker-Kimbrough joins an elite alumni association of past state girls basketball award-winners, including Candace Parker (2001-02, Naperville Central HS, Ill.), Diana Taurasi  (1998-99 & 1999-00, Don Antonio Lugo HS, Calif.), Maya Moore (2005-06 Collins Hill HS, Ga.), Rashanda McCants  (2004-05, Asheville HS, N.C.), Shyra Ely (1999-00, Ben Davis HS, Ind.) and Lisa Leslie (1988-89, Morningside HS, Calif.).
The 5-foot-11 senior guard led the Vikings to a 22-5 record and a second-round clash with South Park in the Class AAA playoffs, on March 13. Walker-Kimbrough scored 20 points for Hopewell but they lost to South Park 50-46. Through 26 games, Walker-Kimbrough was averaging 28.3 points, 10.1 rebounds, 6.8 steals and 4.5 assists. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Player of the Year in 2012, she is a
two-time First Team All-State selection and an Honorable Mention All-American by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.

Walker-Kimbrough has maintained a 3.90 GPA in the classroom. She has volunteered locally on behalf of food and toy donation drives, as well as the Special Olympics and youth basketball programs.
“Walker-Kimbrough is the most dominant player I’ve seen in my eight years as a head coach,” said Steve Lodovico, head coach at Blackhawk High. “She’s very athletic and can get to the rim almost at ease. She’s also developed her outside game and has become a threat from 15 feet and out.”
Walker-Kimbrough has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball on scholarship at the University of Maryland this fall.
Walker-Kimbrough joins recent Gatorade Pennsylvania Girls Basketball Players of the Year Sierra Moore (2011-12, Delone Catholic High School), Madison Cable (2010-11, Mt. Lebanon High School), Kayla McBride (2009-10, Villa Maria Academy), Stephanie Holzer (2008-09, Cardinal O’Hara), Markel Walker (2007-08, Schenley), and Jence Rhoads (2006–07, Slippery Rock Area) among the state’s list of former award winners.
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 high school sports leadership team in partnership with USA TODAY High School Sports, which work with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.
To keep up to date on the latest happenings, become a fan of Gatorade Player of the Year on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. For more on the Gatorade Player of the Year program, including nomination information, a complete list of past winners and the announcement of the Gatorade National Player of the Year, visit www.gatorade.com/poy.

 BILL NEAL

:10 Hey, here’s a bulletin! Just because a girl is high, drunk, knocked out, what­ever, doesn’t give anyone the right to do anything to her. Let alone rape! The two punk jocks from Steubenville should get more than a year in the juvenile system. I’m just saying!

AUBREY BRUCE

“From Jackie Robinson to Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, African American athletes have been at the center of modern culture, their on-the-field heroics admired and stratospheric earnings envied. But for all their money, fame, and achievement Black athletes still find themselves on the periphery of true power in the multibillion-dollar industry their talent built. (New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden, author ‘Forty Million Dollar Slaves’)
As I viewed the latest smash hit, “The Bible,” a myriad of sports and social issues danced around in my head, one of those being slavery. Hollywood depicts the inhumanity of forced servitude as almost being “noble.” As far as Black athletes are concerned they will probably never understand their true value because it will never be revealed to them. As far as I am concerned the NFL compensation process is biased, corrupt and flawed as it relates to Black athletes. There is nothing noble about it.

As far as the recent free agent and trade situations are concerned; I am now retracing the journey of one Anquan Boldin, former Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens, now current San Francisco 49ers, wide receiver. Now this intrigues me a bit. For the first seven seasons of his illustrious career, Boldin plied his trade with the Cardinals. He was the man in the clutch. He could go deep, short, across the middle, hey folks he was “Mr. Everything.” However, when former Minnesota Vikings ball boy and University of Pittsburgh wide receiver great Larry Fitzgerald arrived in Tempe AZ, the general consensus was that fiscally as well as from a talent perspective, Boldin’s days were numbered in the “land of the desert sun.” But hold on folks, tell the conductor that we missed a stop because there is more to this than meets the eye. On Feb. 1, 2009 the Steelers defeated the Cardinals to win Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa. Although the game was close and Boldin had a respectable outing, (8 catches for 84 yards) the upcoming 2009 season would be the final season that Boldin would don a Cardinals uniform. It was concluded by many sports journalists’ including a few of the “asinine” bloggers that due to their Super Bowl loss, the Cardinals did not have the market or patience to justify retaining two wide-outs whose initial market value could exceed two hundred million dollars. What the sports world failed to recognize was that no matter how great the man is that has to throw the rock, there are a few more variables involved for the man who has to catch the rock….you dig. So after the 2009 season, Boldin followed the golden spike and took the midnight train to Georgia, oops sorry; Charlie Chan meant the “red eye” to Baltimore where he instantly became the “security blanket” for Ravens “journeyman” quarterback Joe Flacco. What was Boldin’s reward for his contribution to the Ravens victory in Super Bowl XLVII? Well he was shipped off to the team that he helped to defeat. Do you find it ironic that a year after he lost XLIII, Anquan Boldin was allowed to depart the Cardinals for Baltimore after losing to Pittsburgh and less than ninety days after he helped the Ravens win Super Bowl XLVII he was “traded” to the 49ers, the team coached by the brother of the head coach he played for in Baltimore? Can’t you just hear the conversation between 49ers Coach Jim Harbaugh and his sibling John, the coach of the Ravens?  This next exchange is merely theoretical and conjectural so don’t go blogging “crazy” or blow up the phone lines at “sports talk” because of it. “Hey John, this is Jim calling. I know,” says John; “your name came up on the caller I.D., what’s up? “Well” Jim replies, “seeing that you had to break the bank with the 120 + million that you had to dole out to Joe “pockets full of dough” Flacco I don’t see how you and Ozzie will be able to afford to sign more than a handful of players. Plus you got yours, so let’s keep the Lombardi’s in the family. Before Anquan gets any serious ideas about getting paid, ship him out West so that we can get that final good year out of him before Roger puts him out to pasture.” They gave the man who threw the ball in Super Bowl XLVII, $120 million along with $52 million guaranteed but the man who made more than 50 percent of the “clutch” catches to get him there was carted off to another conference. “Weel about, an’ turn about an’ do jis so. Eb’ry time I weel about, I jump Jim Crow.” (From the biography of Eddie Robinson) Black athletes have been and will continue to be devalued as far as equal compensation for equal talent is concerned as far as the world of professional sports is concerned. Even though he was possibly the greatest college football coach in history, with all due respect to the late coach Robinson, he was just one of the motors on the “conveyor belts” that as Bill Rhoden so elegantly put it; “brings kids from inner cities and small towns to big-time programs, where they’re cut off from their roots and exploited by team owners, sports agents, and the media.” Black players with less than three years experience unless they are first round or high second round picks receive pitiful sums when compared to their White counterparts. Boldin did all of the right dances and said all of the right things but it did not matter. Anquan Boldon helped Joe Flacco get paid while he was “slay-ed.” Most often when Black players say; “show me the money,” they are unceremoniously shown the door…..later  
(Aubrey Bruce can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 412-583-6741.)