Poll results: Here’s the high school girls basketball player of the year in southwest Illinois

Reagan Chigas of Triad High School is the winner of the Belleville News-Democrat Girls Player of the Year high school basketball poll for 2021-22, as selected by readers of bnd.com.

Chigas, a senior guard, finished the high school basketball season averaging 8.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.74 assists per game for the 21-10 Knights. She also helped Triad to its first regional crown since 1984.

Knights coach Josh Hunt heaped high praise on the senior standout.

“Reagan was a valuable piece to our team this year,” Hunt said. “Her versatility and how cerebral she is on the floor sets her apart. We won a regional title for the first time since 1984 while going 21-10. Reagan is a great athlete who plays multiple sports at Triad. Along with being a really good basketball player, she is also a goalie (along with her twin sister Kendall) on the state championship soccer team for Triad in 2021.”

Hunt also noted Chigas — an honor roll student — will continue her academic and athletic career at University of Illinois Springfield while lauding her work ethic.

“Reagan has a tremendous work ethic on and off the court,” Hunt said. “Our girls basketball program is blessed to have tremendous kids who represent our community really well and Reagan is a huge part of that. She is a leader, role model, and most importantly, a great person.”

Chigas — also the Week 11 winner — tallied 5,985 votes (68%) to finish ahead of other BND nominees Jaliah Pelly of O’Fallon High School (1,352 votes, 15%) and Kaylyn Wiley of Granite City High School (1,086 votes, 12%).

Other candidates included Norah Gum of Waterloo High School, Sydney Harris of Edwardsville High School, Kylie Kisgen of Freeburg High School and Natalie Peterson of Freeburg High School.

All candidates were previous BND Girls Athlete of the Week winners from this past season. The poll ended at 11:59 p.m. Monday.

Player of the year candidates

Here are the final stats from 2021-22 for all the player of the year candidates — other than Chigas, whose outputs are above:

• Gum: A junior forward, Gum finished the high school basketball season averaging 18.2 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2.26 steals per game for the 25-7 Bulldogs
  
  
• Harris: A senior guard/forward, Harris finished the high school basketball season averaging 23.8 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 1.79 assists per game for the 29-5 Tigers.
• Kisgen: A junior guard, Kisgen finished the high school basketball season averaging 11.5 points, 4.9 rebounds and 4.03 steals per game for the 26-6 Midgets.
• Pelly: A junior guard, Pelly finished the high school basketball season averaging 9.2 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.56 assists per game for the 25-6 Panthers.
  
  
• Peterson: A junior guard/forward, Peterson finished the high school basketball season averaging 11.7 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.19 rebounds per game for the 26-6 Midgets.
• Wiley: A junior guard, Wiley finished the high school basketball season averaging 13.3 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.77 steals per game for the 10-17 Warriors.

Additionally, though she was not an athlete of the week winner, Sophia Loden of Mascoutah High School garnered write-in attention. Loden, a junior G/F, finished the high school basketball season averaging 22.7 points, 12.5 rebounds and 3.61 steals per game for the 16-15 Indians. She is a 1,000-point scorer as well.

To be clear, this poll is not scientific. In fact, we invite you to vote as many times as you want. It’s all for fun, BND readers.

Anyone can nominate a varsity baseball or softball player for an upcoming poll by emailing gvartanian@bnd.com. The next poll will appear on the BND’s website — www.bnd.com — at 5 a.m. Tuesday.

Past poll winners

Tyler Lunning of O’Fallon High School (Week 1); Dylan Murphy of Columbia High School (Week 2); Brady Moore of Breese Central High School (Week 3); Collinsville Prairie Farms Holiday Classic as the most popular holiday tournament (Week 4); Kaden Augustine of Gibault Catholic High School (Week 5); Natalie Peterson of Freeburg High School (Week 6); Sydney Harris of Edwardsville High School (Week 7); Kaylyn Wylie of Granite City High School and Lunning (Week 8); Kylie Kisgen of Freeburg High School and Lane Otten of Freeburg High School (Week 9); Caleb Burton of O’Fallon High School and Jaliah Pelly of O’Fallon High School (Week 10); Gannon Birkner of New Athens High School and Reagan Chigas of Triad High School (Week 11); Norah Gum of Waterloo High School and Jake Ottensmeier of Highland High School (Week 12); Devin Davis of Collinsville High School and Harris (Week 13); Rini Harris of O’Fallon High School and Peterson (Week 14); the Nashville boys and Freeburg girls as teams of the year (Week 15); and the 1960-61 Collinsville boys team as the best-ever state champion from southwestern Illinois (Week 16).