McDonald’s basketball All-America nominees announced. Meet the 18 Kansans listed
More than 900 of the country’s top high school boys and girls basketball players received good news Tuesday morning.
The McDonald’s All-American Games announced a list of 2020 nominees, and 18 Kansans made the cut, including four from Bel Aire’s Sunrise Christian Academy, the most of any school in the Sunflower State.
The final rosters will be announced Jan. 23. The 2020 games are scheduled for April 1 in Houston. Here are the Kansans up for selection:
Girls basketball nominees
- Riley Bagshaw - Washburn Rural
- Zanaa Cordis - Manhattan
- Kasey Hamilton - Washburn Rural
- Caely Keston - Lawrence Free State
- Eylia Love - Olathe North
- Sydney Nilles - Derby
- Emily Ryan - Central Plains
- Ashton Verhulst - Bishop Miege
- Ali Vigil - Kansas City Piper
Boys basketball nominees
Spencer Bain - Blue Valley West
Xavier Bell - Andover Central
- Ty Berry - Sunrise Christian Academy
- Markell Hood - Blue Valley Northwest
- Isaac Ondekane - Sunrise Christian Academy
- Johnathan Jackson - Blue Valley
- Dillon Jones - Sunrise Christian Academy
- Jayden Stone - Sunrise Christian Academy
- Jordan Vincent - Goddard Eisenhower
Despite having four nominees this season, Sunrise Christian Academy has never had a player on a McDonald’s All-American Game roster. 2020 will be a great opportunity.
Wichita Heights’ Perry Ellis, in 2012, was the most recent boys selection out of Kansas. He went on to play at Kansas. And Derby’s Kennedy Brown was the first girls selection from Kansas, competing last year in Atlanta.
Other former McDonalds’ All-Americans include Heights’ Antoine Carr in 1979, Kapaun’s Greg Dreiling in 1981 and Lawrence’s Danny Manning in 1984.
In 2019, only four Kansas boys and seven girls were nominated. In fact, 2020 marks the most Kansas nominees since 2011.
This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 3:33 PM.