NEW HAMPTON SCHOOL STUDENT-ATHLETE NAMED GATORADE NEW HAMPSHIRE GIRLS BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR
CHICAGO (March 13, 2025) — In its 40th year of honoring the nation’s most elite high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Elyse Ngenda of New Hampton School is the 2024-25 Gatorade New Hampshire Girls Basketball Player of the Year. Ngenda is the second Gatorade New Hampshire Girls Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from New Hampton School.
Gatorade Player of the Year is the top honor in high school sports, celebrating the nation’s best high school athletes for their success on the court, in the classroom and in the community. The award distinguishes Ngenda as New Hampshire’s best high school girls basketball player, and she joins an impressive group of alumni that spans CEOs, coaches and star athletes such as Candace Parker (2002-03 & 2003-04, Naperville Central High School, Illinois), Paige Bueckers (2019-20, Hopkins High School, Minnesota) and Joyce Edwards (2023-24, Camden High School, South Carolina).
The 5-foot-9 junior guard led the Huskies (19-9) to the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council Class AAA semifinals this past season. Ngenda averaged 16.5 points, 6.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.9 assists and shot 55 percent from beyond the arc. A finalist for NEPSAC Class 3A Player of the Year, Ngenda is ranked as New England’s No. 4 player in her class by Prep Girls Hoops.
The president of her school’s Student-Athletes of Christian Fellowship, Ngenda has volunteered locally as a youth basketball instructor. She has also served as her class president, and is also a member of New Hampton’s Black Affinity Group. “She can do everything for them,” said Kristen Campopiano, head coach at Dexter-Southfield High School. “She defends, shoots, runs their offense—she can do it all. I thought she was the one who made that team go.”
Ngenda has maintained a 3.57 GPA in the classroom. She will begin her senior year of high school this fall.
The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states across 12 different high school sports – 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.
Ngenda joins recent Gatorade New Hampshire Girls Basketball Players of the Year Ahnay Adams (2023-24, 2022-23 & 2021-22, Tilton School) and Isabella King (2020-21, Bedford High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.
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 $5.6 million in grants to winners across more than 2,000 organizations.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com or follow us on social media on Instagram at instagram.com/Gatorade, Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY and X(Twitter) at x.com/Gatorade.
