by CHICAGO (March 15, 2023) — In its 38th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Stewart Erhart of West Valley High School is the 2022-23 Gatorade Alaska Boys Basketball Player of the Year. Erhart is the first Gatorade Alaska Boys Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from West Valley 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 Erhart as Alaska’s best high school boys basketball player. Erhart joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Chet Holmgren (2020-21, Minnehaha Academy, Minn.), Trae Young (2016-17, Norman North High School, Ok.), Jayson Tatum (2015-16, Chaminade College Preparatory School, Mo.), and Karl-Anthony Towns (2013-14 & 2012-13, St. Joseph High School, N.J.).
At the time of his selection, the 6-foot-2, 165-pound senior guard had led the Wolfpack to a 22-1 record in Alaska’s 4A division and a berth in the Mid-Alaska Conference tournament. Erhart averaged 21.2 points, 7.3 rebounds, 5.3 steals and 4.0 assists through 23 games. He is also the state’s returning Gatorade Player of the Year winner.
Selected as a Fairbanks Native Association Johnson O’Malley Program basketball leadership student, Erhart has participated in the O’Malley Native Youth Basketball Tournament as a facilitator. Erhart’s family operates a fourth-generation sprint dog mushing company and he has both worked and raced for the family business. “Erhart is the reigning Gatorade Player of the Year and has only gotten better,” said North Pole High School head coach Travis Church. “He’s the engine of that West Valley team. Stewart gets it done on both ends of the floor and is a much improved outside shooter.”
Erhart has maintained a B average in the classroom. He remains undecided upon a collegiate destination.
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 Erhart joins recent Gatorade Alaska Boys Basketball Players of the Year Patrick McMahon (2020-21, Colony High School), Isaiah Moses (2019-20, Dimond High School), and Sullivan Menard (2018-19, Colony High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.
