Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

sun standout awards:

Two prep athletes who dominated the competition

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Steve Marcus

Coronado’s Jaden Hardy (1) takes the ball upcourt during a game against Bishop Gorman at the Cox Pavilion at UNLV Friday, Jan. 24, 2020.

Editor's Note: The Las Vegas Sun’s annual showcase of the best in high school sports, the Sun Standout Awards, was canceled this month as a precaution against the spread of COVID-19. While the pandemic may have pushed the event off the calendar until 2021, our commitment to spotlighting prep sports is undiminished. Our local athletes did some amazing things, both on and off the field. Today, we share their stories.

No prep athlete in Southern Nevada came into the 2019-20 season under the weight of expectations quite like Coronado junior basketball standout Jaden Hardy. Ranked No. 2 in the nation in the Class of 2021, the 6-foot-5 guard needed to play like a superstar in every single game or risk disappointing.

Hardy didn’t just meet those expectations — he exceeded them. Hardy pumped in 30.4 points per contest and did whatever his team needed on the Cougars’ run to the Class 4A regional semifinals, adding 9.1 rebounds and 8.4 assists.

In an 85-84 overtime win over Cathedral Catholic (Calif.) on Jan. 20, Hardy went off for 62 points to lead Coronado all the way back from a 21-point deficit.

"My teammates were finding me and getting me the ball," Hardy says, "and shots were going in. My shot-making was really on that night. I was just in it. It was one of those nights where I felt like I couldn't miss."

Hardy has gotten plenty of recognition during his three years at Coronado. He earned Sun Standout Rising Star honors as a sophomore last year, and he was named Gatorade State Player of the Year for 2019-20. That has coincided with Hardy becoming one of the most coveted recruits in the country, with schools such as Kentucky, Kansas, Arizona, Oregon, Texas Tech and UCLA all hoping to land a commitment.

Hardy says he doesn't pay too much attention to personal accolades, and that the brightest memory he'll take from the 2019-20 campaign will be how he shared it with his teammates. 

"My teammates, my coaches," Hardy says, "that's going to be the one thing I remember. The trips we went on and the bonding we had, that's the main thing."

The only thing that kept Christian Franklin from turning in a similarly dominant senior year on the track was the COVID-19 outbreak, which brought an abrupt end to the spring sports season. Before that happened, however, the Valley senior was able to capture the Class 3A state championship in cross-country for the second straight year.

Franklin will head to UNR next year to run cross-country and track.

“The best moment of my senior year would be my state cross-country championship,” Franklin says. “They had it in Reno, and to be up there and win, that feeling was amazing for me.”

Click to enlarge photo

Christian Franklin, Male Athlete of the Year finalist

Just in case there was any doubt as to who the state’s top distance runner was this year, Franklin also finished first at the Southern Region cross-country championships, then placed first in the 800 meters and the 1600 meters at the Heitkotter Invitational in March before the spring season was cut short.

Despite an incomplete track campaign, Franklin is satisfied with everything he accomplished as a senior.

“I had bigger things planned,” Franklin says. “I was using cross-country to get ready for track this year. I was motivating myself. It was going in the right direction. I still feel like this year was a really big success.”