Gatorade’s Ohio Boys Basketball Player of Year is Paul McMillan IV

On Mar 16, 2022

In its 37th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade Wednesday announced Paul McMillan IV of Woodward Career Technical High School as the 2021-22 Gatorade Ohio Boys Basketball Player of the Year. McMillan IV is the first Gatorade Ohio Boys Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from Woodward.

More:Paul McMillan IV passes LeBron James on OHSAA scoring list as Woodward advances to Elite 8

The award recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the court.

McMillan IV is now a finalist for the Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year award to be announced later in March.

In Cincinnati, he joins Chance Gray of Winton Woods who was recently named the Girls Ohio Gatorade Player of the Year.

The 6-foot-2 inch, 175-pound senior guard had led the Bulldogs to a 22-3 record and the Division II regional semifinals at the time of his selection. McMillan averaged 27.3 points, 5.2 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 2.2 steals through 25 games.

He also was voted the Southwest Ohio Division II Player of the Year, is a two-time first-team All-Ohio selection and a three-time Cincinnati Metro Athletic Conference Player of the Year.

A member of his school’s Student Athletic Leadership Team, McMillan has served as a mentor for middle school students and has volunteered locally on behalf of toy- and food-donation drives.

“McMillan demonstrates high-end speed and quickness and he can flat-out get buckets,” Paul Biancardi of ESPN Basketball said. “He’s a determined driver with a dependable 3-point shot, and he does a good job of rebounding from his position and coming up with steals.”

McMillan has maintained a 4.0 GPA in the classroom. He remains undecided upon a collegiate destination.

The Gatorade 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.

Through Gatorade’s “Play it Forward” platform, McMillan IV has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national organization of his choosing that helps young athletes realize the benefits of playing sports. McMillan IV also can submit a short video explaining why the organization he chooses deserves one of 12 $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.