Hard work paid off for two winter athletes. Senior varsity basketball player Jaylen Solich and senior varsity soccer player Mackenzie Gill earned the CVC League MVP award for their respective sport.

Jaylen Solich

Senior Jaylen Solich has been leading the boys varsity basketball team on the offensive side of the court for the past two seasons, and established himself early as an offensive threat in the CVC. This season, Solich led the team to a CVC Co-League Championship.

Throughout league, Solich led the team in scoring, averaging 17.0 points a game. Solich also did a good job of getting the whole team involved on offensive, leading the team in assists with 4.6 a game. Not only did he lead the team offensively, but he also managed to average 2.4 steals a game on the defensive end for the Tigers.

Varsity head coach Greg Granucci believes that no matter what the other team tried to throw at Solich, he was still unstoppable offensively.

“You can game plan for him, you can run a couple guys at him, you can pick him up full court, half court and he still is going to do what we need him to do to be good and for us to be good,” Granucci said.

Granucci also thinks Solich deserves to be MVP because of his solid work ethic.

“He does a great job of understanding that on the days he takes off someone else is outworking him, so he does not take a day off, he works really hard on his skills and his craft,” Granucci said. “I’m proud of him, he deserves this.”

Mackenzie Gill

Senior Mackenzie Gill has been a starting forward for all four of her high school years on the girls varsity soccer team. Under Gill’s offensive leadership, the team has won a CVC League Championship and a SJS D2 Championship.

This season, Gill led the team in goals with 21. With 10 assists, Gill also manages to spread the wealth to her teammates, giving them many great opportunities to score.

Gill’s teammate and sister, senior Kelsey Gill, believes her sister was the obvious pick for MVP due to her big offensive season.

“All of the goals that she has scored has been a big contributor to her success,” Gill said. “When you look at the stats you see she has the most goals in the league which definitely shows that she should be league MVP.”

Gill thinks her sister is very deserving of this honor because of the teammate she is.

“She is a very hard worker and she’s great to be on the field with. We all enjoy playing with her, she’s a great teammate,” Gill said. “She definitely deserves this.”