Miege senior adds to trophy case before embarking on college career at Louisville

Wednesday was another memorable day for a Bishop Miege girls basketball star who has enjoyed a lot of them during her high school career.

Five-star recruit Payton Verhulst, who will attend the University of Louisville this fall on a college basketball scholarship, was presented a certificate recognizing her a McDonald’s All-American Team finalist for the 2020-21 school year during a special afternoon ceremony at the high school.

Local McDonald’s owner-operators attended the ceremony to present the certificate to Verhulst at Miege in Roeland Park.

More than 700 girls and boys high school basketball players from across the country were nominated for the 44th annual McDonald’s All American Games teams. Out of those 700, a final roster of 48 players was selected.

Because of COVID-19 concerns, the 2021 McDonald’s All Americans class won’t be able to participate in the event’s traditional game-week experience, but the Wednesday ceremony was another honor in a month full of them for Verhulst.

Two weeks ago in Salina, she helped the Miege (23-1) to another Class 4A Kansas state championship in girls hoops. Miege beat McPherson 51-36 to complete the Stags’ boys/girls title sweep.

Before that, she’d been named a 2021 Naismith National High School All-American.

As a junior last spring, Verhulst won the state Gatorade Player of the Year award for Kansas, earning the honor alongside University of Kansas pledge Gradey Dick of Collegiate High, who earned the equivalent boys award.

In 2019, Verhulst served as captain of the gold medal-winning USA Basketball U16 Women’s National Team and earned MVP honors at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship.

We’re probably missing more than a few accolades here (and it should probably be mentioned that it was Verhulst who served up the clinching point as Miege won the state volleyball championship last fall, too), but you get the idea:

This young woman is one of the best high school basketball players the KC metro has seen in recent memory.

“Payton Verhulst is the best basketball player I have ever coached against,” Mill Valley coach Drew Walters told Gatorade last year. “She is a great defender and offensively she can get to any spot on the floor.

“She’s very willing to share the ball, but she knows when to take control of games.”