Millennium's Dominique Phillips leads team to state title, earns Gatorade Player of the Year

March 10, 2019 by Seth Polansky, AZPreps365


CHICAGO (March 8, 2019) — In its 34th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company today announced Dominique Phillips of Millennium High School as its 2018-19 Gatorade Arizona Girls Basketball Player of the Year. Phillips is the first Gatorade Arizona Girls Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from Millennium High School.

The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Phillips as Arizona’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 in March, Phillips joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Maya Moore (2005-06, Collins Hill High School, Ga.), Rashanda McCants (2004-05, Asheville High School, N.C.), Candace Parker (2001-02, 2002-03 & 2003-04, Naperville Central High School, Ill.), Diana Taurasi (1998-99 & 1999-00, Don Antonio Lugo High School, Calif.), Shyra Ely (1999-00, Ben Davis High School, Ind.), Katie Smith (1991-92, Logan High School, Ohio) and Lisa Leslie (1988-89, Morningside High School, Calif.).

The 6-foot senior guard led the Tigers to a 27-4 record and their first Class 5A state championship this past season. Phillips averaged 15.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 3.1 steals per game. Region MVP and a two-time First Team All-State honoree, she was also named Class 6A Offensive Player of the Year as a sophomore and junior.

A member of her school’s Student Council, Phillips has served as a student athletic trainer and has volunteered locally on behalf of youth sports camps. “Phillips is a problem on the court, both inside and outside the paint,” said RaShawn Calvert, head coach at Maricopa High. “She can play any position, from one to five, and she does it with the most heart and effort I’ve seen all season.”

Phillips has maintained a weighted 4.04 GPA in the classroom. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball on scholarship at the University of Nevada this fall.

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. From the 12 national winners, one male and one female athlete are each named Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year. In all, 607 athletes are honored each year.

Phillips joins Gatorade Arizona Girls Basketball Players of the Year Taylor Chavez (2017-18, Valley Vista High School), Shaylee Gonzales (2016-17, Mesquite High School), Najiyyah Pack (2015-16, South Mountain High School), Kristine Anigwe (2014-15, Desert Vista High School), and Julia Barcello (2013-14, Seton Catholic Preparatory High School) as athletes who have recently won the basketball award.

As a part of Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Phillips also has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of her choosing. She is also eligible to submit an essay to win one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants for the organization of choice, which will be announced throughout the year.

Since the program’s inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of professional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming coaches, business owners and educators.

To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visit www.Gatorade.com/POY, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Gatorade.