Chet Holmgren named one of three Gatorade Player of the Year finalists in boys' basketball

Minnehaha Academy's Chet Holmgren has already nabbed some of the biggest awards in high school basketball, and now he's been named one of three finalists for the Gatorade Boys' Basketball Player of the Year Award.

The other two finalists are Jabari Smith, a senior forward from Tyrone, Ga., who has committed to Auburn and Donovan Clingan, a junior center from Bristol, Conn., who is ranked as the No. 44 player in the country for the Class of 2022.

Holmgren has already been named the Naismith Prep Player of the Year, the Morgan Wootten National Player of the Year, and he is a McDonald's All-American.

But if he wins the national award from Gatorade, he would join a select list of Minnesota prep athletes to achieve that honor.

Paige Bueckers of Hopkins won it for girls' basketball for the 2019-2020 season before heading to Connecticut for the most explosive freshman campaign in women's college basketball history.

When Bueckers won the award from Gatorade, it was presented to her in a surprise ceremony by Karl-Anthony Towns of the Timberwolves, who won the boys' award in 2014 with St. Joseph High School in New Jersey.

Former Shakopee standout Ashley Wittman won the volleyball award in 2010 after leading her team to three-straight Class 3A state titles. Wittman went on to play at Minnesota, where she was twice a team captain and made Second Team All-American in 2013.

Cretin-Derham Hall's Joe Mauer made history in 2001 when he was named the Gatorade player of the year in football and baseball, the only time a prep athlete has won the award in two sports.

Mauer accepted a football scholarship to play at Florida State before the Twins selected him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 draft and he dedicated his career to baseball.

The first Minnesotan to win the award was another Cretin-Derham Hall quarterback, Chris Walsh. He won the award in football in 1992 before going to Miami. Walsh ended up leaving the school at the start of his redshirt sophomore year.

Holmgren was the consensus No. 1 recruit in the nation when he committed to Gonzaga, following in the footsteps of Minnehaha Academy grad Jalen Suggs, who was Gatorade's Minnesota player of the year last season.