Azzi Fudd, the top-ranked girls basketball recruit in the class of 2021, has been named the 2021 Morgan Wootten Girls High School Basketball Player of the Year.
The award is given to a high school girls basketball player who demonstrates outstanding character, exhibits leadership and embodies the values of being a student-athlete through schoolwork and community affairs.
Fudd, who is committed to the University of Connecticut, plays her high school basketball at St. John’s College High School, where she has developed into “the best women’s basketball prospect the game has seen in decades,” according to ESPN. Fudd returned from a torn ACL and MCL in her right knee to average 19.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and two assists per game for St. John’s College in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic brought an abrupt end to the season.
In 2019, Fudd was named Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year after leading St. John’s College to a 35-1 record and District of Columbia State Athletic Association tournament championship with 26.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. She was the first sophomore to ever win the award. Prior to her sophomore season, Fudd became one of the first girls to ever attend the SC30 Select Camp, an elite offseason program orchestrated by two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry.
St. John’s College did not play a 2020-21 girls high school basketball season because of the ongoing pandemic. However, the team has played some unofficial exhibition games as the D.C. Cadets, which Fudd advocated for as the school’s student body vice president at the time of the pandemic.
The Morgan Wootten Award is named after the legendary DeMatha Catholic (Md.) coach, who went 1274-192 and won multiple national championships in his storied career. Previous winners of the Wootten Award include Candace Parker, Maya Moore, Elena Della Donne and Breanna Stewart. UConn star Paige Beuckers won the award in 2020.
While the 2021 Class of All Americans won’t take the court this year, you can see Fudd be honored during the McDonald’s All American Games hour-long Special on ABC on Saturday, April 3 at 2 p.m. ET.
