HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
Boateng named boys Gatorade Player of the Year
Little Rock Central junior forward Annor Boateng, a University of Arkansas target, has been named the 2022-23 Gatorade Arkansas Boys Basketball Player of the Year.
Boateng, 6-5 and 205 pounds, averaged 15.9 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.9 steals and 1.4 blocks per game this season while leading the Tigers to a 24-7 record and the quarterfinals of the Class 6A state tournament. He has surpassed 1,000 career points at Central.
The award recognizes outstanding athletic excellence, high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the court, according to its website.
Boateng has offers from Arkansas, LSU, TCU, Auburn, Mississippi State, Arizona State, Oklahoma State and others. On3.com rates Boateng a 5-star recruit, the No. 3 shooting guard and No. 8 overall prospect in the nation for the 2024 class.
Boateng, who plays for the Arkansas Hawks on the Adidas circuit, has volunteered locally coaching a church league basketball team in addition to donating his time instructing 7-year-old teams in basketball drills.
He carries a 3.64 grade-point average.
-- Richard Davenport
COLLEGE ATHLETICS
UA approves Harter Track
The University of Arkansas System Board of Trustees approved on Wednesday naming the indoor track at the Randal Tyson Track Center the Lance Harter Track, after the head coach who will retire following the 2023 NCAA outdoor season after 33 seasons leading the Razorback women's cross country and track and field programs.
In his hall of fame career, Harter has led the Razorbacks to seven NCAA championships and 43 SEC championships. UA Chancellor Charles Robinson said Harter is a track and field "icon" not only at the university, but throughout the state.
-- Ryan Anderson
UAM to name center after Hunt
The University of Arkansas-Monticello will name its athletic performance center after Kenneth H. Hunt, a 1980 graduate of the school who was inducted into the UAM Sports Hall of Fame as part of the 1979 Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference championship football team.
UAM Chancellor Peggy Doss and Hunt developed a friendship, which ultimately led to him being the "primary donor" for the project that created the athletic performance center, Doss said. He's the first Black person to have a facility named for him at UAM and will be honored as the school's distinguished alumnus at the May commencement ceremony.
-- Ryan Anderson
UAFS hall of fame to honor Whorton
University of Arkansas-Fort Smith had the naming of its athletic hall of fame for Coach Louis Whorton approved Wednesday by the UA board of trustees.
Over three decades at then-Westark Community College and UAFS, Whorton "built a dominant women's basketball program that rivaled any four- or two-year institution around the nation," winning 648 games, including the 1994-95 National Junior College Athletic Association Women's Basketball National Championship, according to a resolution by UAFS Chancellor Terisa Riley.
Whorton died in 2021, but his 1994-95 national championship will be inducted into the school's athletic hall of fame in April, Riley said.
-- Ryan Anderson