Accolades Continue for Fope Ayo '26 With Gatorade Player of The Year Award

In its 41st year celebrating the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade announced on March 13 that Fope Ayo '26 is the 2025-26 Gatorade Massachusetts Girls Basketball Player of the Year.

Gatorade Player of the Year is the top honor in high school sports, celebrating the nation’s best high school athletes for their excellence in sport, academics and community. The award recognizes Fope as Massachusetts’ best high school girls basketball player, and she joins an elite legacy that spans professional athletes such as Candace Parker and Paige Bueckers.

The 6-foot-5 senior center averaged 22.3 points, 17.3 rebounds and 4.1 blocks this past season, becoming the first player in Austin Prep history to eclipse both 1,000 career points and rebounds. Fope was the New England Basketball Journal’s 2025-26 Class AA Defensive Player of the Year and a McDonald’s All-American Game nominee this year. She is ranked as the nation’s No. 45 recruit in the Class of 2026 by ESPN.

A member of Austin Prep’s student government and leadership council, Fope has volunteered locally in association with the Unitas Leadership Academy, a faculty-nominated role in a program that features mentoring, community engagement, and skill development. She also founded Sweet Desserts, an initiative that bakes birthday cakes for incarcerated juveniles. 

Fope has maintained an A average in the classroom. She has signed a written letter of athletic aid to play basketball at the University of Michigan this fall.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one state winner from each of the 50 states and Washington D.C., in 12 different sports: football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, baseball, softball, boys and girls soccer, and boys and girls track & field. In total, 610 high school athletes are honored each year.

From the pool of state winners, one national winner is selected in each of the 12 sports. 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 winners in each sport.

As part of Gatorade’s commitment to breaking down barriers in sport, every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner. To date, the Gatorade Player of the Year program has provided more than $6.4 million in grants to winners across more than 2,200 organizations.

Not only is the announcement a great honor for Fope, but it puts Austin Prep is a unique position of having two current Gatorade Players of the Year on campus. Bradley McCafferty '26 was named the 2024-25 Gatorade Massachusetts Baseball Player of the Year following his junior season last year.