In its 26th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with ESPN RISE, announced Taran Brown of Campbell County High School as its 2010-11 Gatorade Wyoming Boys Basketball Player of the Year. Brown is the fifth Gatorade Wyoming Boys Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from Campbell County 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 Brown as Wyoming’s best high school boys basketball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year award to be announced in March, Brown joins an elite alumni association of past state boys basketball award winners, including Dwight Howard (2003-04, SW Atlanta Christian Academy, Ga.), Chauncey Billups (1993-94 & 1994-95, George Washington HS, Colo.), Jason Kidd (1991-92, St. Joseph Notre Dame HS, Calif.), Paul Pierce (1994-95, Inglewood HS, Calif.) and Chris Bosh (2001-02, Lincoln HS, Texas).
 
The 6-foot-8, 190-pound senior forward led the Camels to a 25-3 record and the Class 4A state title this past season. Brown averaged 19.9 points, 8.7 rebounds, 2.5 blocks and 2.1 steals per game. A two-time First Team All-State selection, he scored 25 points on 8-for-8 shooting, pulled down eight rebounds and blocked three shots in Campbell County’s 60-33 win over Laramie High in the state final.
 
 Brown has maintained a 3.64 GPA in the classroom. He has volunteered locally as a D.A.R.E. role model and as a youth basketball coach.
 
 "I can’t think of anyone I’ve seen who has been better than Taran Brown," said Laramie High Head Coach Jason Mountain. "He just has the ability to dominate every phase of the game. He can shoot from the outside and he’s a great defender."
 
Brown has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball on scholarship at the University of California at Santa Barbara this fall.
 
 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 ESPN RISE and the Gatorade high school sports leadership team, which work with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.
 
Brown joins recent Gatorade Wyoming Boys Basketball Players of the Year Dan Estes (2009-10, Laramie), Michael Dietz (2008-09, Natrona County), and Justin Nelson (2007-08, Campbell County), among the state’s list of former award winners.

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