Poll: Who do you think was the best winter high school athlete in Broward? Vote now.
Broward County teams finished off another impressive winter sports season with seven state championships. The Miami Herald honored several athletes on those squads and others with its winter sports players of the year in the sports of basketball, soccer and wrestling.
As it does annually, the Miami Herald will select its overall Athletes of the Year and reveal those winners in June. But while this will not have a bearing on those results, the Herald is asking who YOU think was the best performer from that winter sports season.
Below is a look at the 10 athletes who were selected as Players of the Year in their respective sports from the winter season in Broward County.
Take our poll below to cast your vote. The poll will be open until Tuesday at 10 p.m. You may vote as often as you like until then.
We will publish a similar poll for the spring sports season and already published the results from our fall sports poll this week.
Here are the candidates:
▪ Geoffrey Sprouse, Pembroke Pines Charter, 7A-5A boys’ basketball: A St. John’s University signee, Sprouse helped turn the Jaguars program around and finished his senior season averaging 14.3 points per game.
▪ Taylor Hendricks, Calvary Christian, 4A-2A boys’ basketball: Hendricks, a UCF signee, averaged 15.0 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game for nationally-ranked Calvary Christian.
▪ Ta’Niya Latson, American Heritage, 7A-5A girls’ basketball: Latson, a McDonald’s All-American and FSU signee, averaged 27.2 points per game, eight rebounds, seven assists, 5.3 steals and two blocks per game her senior season.
▪ Claire Erickson, Westminster Academy, 4A-2A girls’ basketball: After five years of losing in the regional finals, Erickson led the Lions to their first state title in 31 years averaging 14.2 points to go along with her 4.3 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.4 steals per game.
▪ Giancarlo Dostillo, Cypress Bay, 7A-5A boys’ soccer: Dostillo scored 19 goals and added 22 assists to help the Lightning win their first state title since 2017.
▪ Rafael Matiello, NSU University School, 4A-2A boys’ soccer: Matiello scored or assisted on two-thirds of University School’s goals this season as the Sharks made a run to the Class 4A regional semifinals.
▪ Maddy Brouse, Cypress Bay, 7A-5A girls’ soccer: Brouse had 12 goals and seven assists to lead the Lightning back to the state finals after a rough start to the season.
▪ Leah Finkelman, North Broward Prep, 4A-2A girls’ soccer: Finkelman, who is committed to play soccer at the University of Pennsylvania, scored 34 of North Broward Prep’s 66 goals and added 10 assists to lead the Eagles to the state semifinals.
▪ Nicholas Yancey, Cardinal Gibbons, boys’ wrestling: Yancey repeated as a state champion and won all 40 of his matches this season and now has a 64-match winning streak.
▪ Lourdes Macias, Western, girls’ wrestling: Macias went 22-10 in her final season for the Wildcats and set the tone for her team, which sent more girls’ wrestlers to the state meet than any other Broward team.
This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 9:00 AM.