For the fourth year in a row, the Jackson Academy Lady Raider volleyball program boasts the top player in the state. Senior Lakin Laurendine was named the 2022-2023 Gatorade Mississippi Volleyball Player of the Year this past week.
This is the ninth time in the last 10 years a Jackson Academy athlete has been given a Gatorade Mississippi Player of The Year distinction. Lady Raiders have received the coveted Gatorade State Award for Volleyball five times.
JA’s volleyball team and fans enjoyed a spectacular season, culminating in the MAIS Overall Volleyball Championship, which marked the eighth state title since volleyball began at JA in the 2011-12 school year.
Lakin is an Auburn University commit who helped lead JA to its most recent state championship with 623 kills, 97 aces, 526 digs, 35 blocks, and a 2.34 passing average. She has been recognized by prepvolleyball.com as a 1st Team All-American, volleyballmag.com as the Best Player in the State, AVCA as a 1st Team All-American, volleyballmag.com as a 3rd Team All-American, Maxpreps as a 1st Team All-American, Maxpreps as Best Player in Mississippi, and All Time Kills Leader for Mississippi. She was All-MAIS, MAIS Player of the Year, and was chosen for MAIS All-Stars. JA recognized her as the varsity kill leader, varsity ace leader, and Most Valuable Player at the team’s end-of-year banquet.
Gatorade says the award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Lakin as Mississippi’s best high school volleyball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Volleyball Player of the Year award, she joins an elite alumni association of state award winners in 12 sports. Since the program’s inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of professional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming coaches, business owners, and educators.
Raider and Lady Raider athletes named a Gatorade Player of The Year for Mississippi:
- 2022-23 – Lakin Laurendine (Volleyball)
- 2021-22 – Lakin Laurendine (Volleyball)
- 2021-22 – Dakota Jordan (Baseball)
- 2020-21 – Parker Bracken (Volleyball)
- 2020-21 – Emery Thigpen (Boys Soccer)
- 2019-20 – Parker Bracken (Volleyball)
- 2015-16 – Conley Chinn (Volleyball)
- 2014-15 – Curt Knight (Cross Country)
- 2013-14 – Curt Knight (Cross Country)
