CHICAGO (March 16, 2022) — In its 37th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Dylan Anderson of Perry High School is the 2021-22 Gatorade Arizona Boys Basketball Player of the Year. Anderson is the first Gatorade Arizona Boys Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from Perry 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 court, distinguishes Anderson as Arizona’s best high school boys basketball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year award to be announced in March, Anderson joins an elite alumni association of state awardwinners in 12 sports, including Jayson Tatum (2015-16, Chaminade College Preparatory School, Mo.), KarlAnthony Towns (2012-13 & 2013-14, St. Joseph High School, N.J.), Jabari Parker (2011-12, Simeon Career Academy, Ill.) and Dwight Howard (2003-04, Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy, Ga.).

The 7-foot, 235-pound senior forward led the Pumas to a 25-5 record and their first Class 6A state championship this past season. The state’s returning Gatorade Boys Basketball Player of the Year, Anderson averaged 13.0 points, 11.0 rebounds, 1.9 blocks and 1.9 steals per game. An All-District and All-Region selection, he was also a First Team All-State and First Team All-Arizona honoree as a junior.

Anderson has volunteered locally on behalf of Sun Lakes Rotary Club and youth sports programs. “Anderson is a strong, physical and skilled big man who is effective both inside and out,” said Paul Biancardi of ESPN Basketball. “He’s a post who can step outside and knock down jumpers from beyond the arc as well as from the mid-range. He will be an ideal fit as a stretch big man in Arizona’s up-tempo offense.”

Anderson has maintained a 3.58 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball on scholarship at the University of Arizona 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. The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the state winners in each sport. Two-time winner Anderson joins recent Gatorade Arizona Boys Basketball Players of the Year DaRon Holmes (2019- 20, Millennium High School), and Nico Mannion (2018-19 & 2017-18, Pinnacle High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.

Gatorade has a long-standing history of serving athlete communities and understands how sports instill valuable lifelong skills on and off the field. Through Gatorade’s “Play it Forward” platform, Middleton has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national organization of their choosing that helps young athletes realize the benefits of playing sports. Middleton is also eligible to submit a short video explaining why the organization they chose is deserving of one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants, which will be announced throughout the year. To date, Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants have totaled more than $3.5 million across more than 1,300 organizations.

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 studentathletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com or follow us on social media on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY, Instagram at instagram.com/Gatorade and Twitter at twitter.com/Gatorade.