CHICAGO (June 4, 2021) — In its 36th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today
announced Matthew Mors of Yankton High School as its 2020-21 Gatorade South Dakota Boys Basketball Player of
the Year. Mors is the second Gatorade South Dakota Boys Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from Yankton
High School.

The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic
achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Mors as South Dakota’s best
high school boys basketball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the
Year award to be announced in June, Mors joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports,
including Jayson Tatum (2015-16, Chaminade College Preparatory School, Mo.), Karl-Anthony Towns (2012-13 &
2013-14, St. Joseph High School, N.J.), Jabari Parker (2011-12, Simeon Career Academy, Ill.) and Dwight Howard
(2003-04, Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy, Ga.).

The 6-foot-7, 225-pound senior forward led the Bucks to a 20-4 record and the Class AA semifinals this past season. The
state’s two-time returning Gatorade Boys Basketball Player of the Year, Mors averaged 24.2 points, 8.1 rebounds, 3.1
assists, 2.5 steals and 1.9 blocks per game. A five-time All-State selection, he is a three-time Argus Leader Player of the
Year.

President of his school’s service club and a member of the Student Council, Mors has volunteered as a youth basketball
coach and has donated his time on behalf of food, clothing and school supply donation drives. “Matthew Mors has been
a great player in South Dakota for a long time,” said Scott Langerock, head coach at Harrisburg High. “He continues to
develop new ways to impact each game, all while the opponent’s entire game plan is based on stopping him.”
Mors has maintained a 4.03 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball on
scholarship at the University of Wisconsin this fall.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the
50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys
and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each
sport. The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which works with
top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine
the state winners in each sport.

Three-time winner Mors joins recent Gatorade South Dakota Boys Basketball Players of the Year A.J. Plitzuweit (2017-18,
Vermillion High School), and Matt Cartwright (2016-17, O’Gorman High School), among the state’s list of former award
winners.

Through Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Mors has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a
local or national youth sports organization of their choosing. Mors is also eligible to submit a 30-second video
explaining why the organization they chose is deserving of one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants, which will be
announced throughout the year. To date, Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants have totaled more than $2.7
million across 1,117 organizations.

Since the program’s inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of
professional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming
coaches, business owners and educators.