By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
It wasn’t a surprise to the honoree, just to nearly everyone else among a crowded Brookshire Grocery Arena Sunday afternoon.
In a presentation just before tipoff of Sunday’s LSU women’s basketball game showcasing Parkway High School Class of 2023 graduate Mikaylah Williams, school officials retired her No. 12 and presented a framed and matted jersey keepsake. Among the group of school officials was her Parkway head coach, Gloria Williams (no relation).
Williams, who said she was aware of the honor ahead of time, was nonetheless obviously touched and appreciative during the ceremony and said so in a postgame media session.
“I did know (in advance), but I’m blessed. I put in a lot of work, a lot of hours, a lot of blood, sweat and tears to be in this moment, to have my jersey retired,” she said. “I’m also grateful for my family, my coaches, my friends, and most of all, God. I’m just grateful that He put me in position to have my jersey retired.”
LSU coach Kim Mulkey, who was a high school sensation herself in the late 1970s at Hammond, tracked Williams in recruiting from her early days at Parkway and had a full understanding of why her sophomore guard was honored with the retired jersey.
“She exemplified being a scholar-athlete. At Parkway, she was homecoming queen, and it seemed like every time you turned around, she was winning something at Parkway. She left her mark not only at Parkway, but in Bossier City,” said Mulkey.
Williams’ string of success through her senior year at Parkway was incomparable. She sustained her level of excellence from leading Parkway’s state championship season, through being a fine competitor for the Lady Panthers in softball and track and field, graduating at the top of her class, earning her second straight MVP award on the USA Basketball age group 3-on-3 gold medal team, before seamlessly stepping into Mulkey’s starting five with the Tigers.
She was the 2023 Shreveport-Bossier Journal Sportsperson of the Year, a unanimous choice, and was recognized by the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl as its 2022 Carl Mikovich Sportsperson of the Year. She was a two-time Louisiana Sportswriters Association Class 5A All-State Outstanding Player.
Parkway was unbeaten in the state in its 2022-23 basketball season as the Lady Panthers set their sights on a return trip to Marsh Madness in Hammond, and a happy return home this time around. A double-overtime 80-79 loss in the state finals to Ponchatoula ended Williams’ junior season.
It was avenged in the 2023 championship game – by a blowout 80-57 margin over Ponchatoula, as in her final high school game, Williams scored 34 points and snagged 11 rebounds. She had 23 points, 17 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals in a 61-28 semifinal rout of Barbe. The Lady Panthers hammered each of their postseason foes and finished with a 30-5 overall record.
Williams was the Non-Select Division I tournament Most Valuable Player, and she also had to be hustled back on the court after draining a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer in the state finals to receive her All-Academic Award among the state’s elite girls basketball scholar-athletes in a presentation at intermission. She had a 4.0 grade point average.
She repeated as the Louisiana Gatorade Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year and claimed her second Miss Louisiana Basketball from the LSWA. The 6-0 guard was rated as the nation’s No. 1 2023 senior by at least three recruiting services and was named the 2023 Morgan Wooten National Player of the Year and starred in the McDonald’s High School All-America Game.
Williams ranks alongside Louisiana Sports Hall of Famer Alana Beard as the most highly-sought girls’ basketball recruit from Shreveport-Bossier, and is on pace to rival Beard’s legendary college accomplishments at Duke and her professional success overseas and in the WNBA.
Like Beard, she subjugates her individual statistics to play whatever role her team needs, at Parkway and now for Mulkey on the star-studded LSU roster. She was last season’s Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year, starting every game for a Tigers’ team that reached the Elite Eight.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com