Story leads Lanett to 2nd state championship, named Gatorade POY

Kristian Story and the Lanett Panthers defeated a tough Mars Hill Bible team to take home their second state title in three years on Thursday, but the AHSAA 1-A state championship player of the game would not be the only award Story took home this week.

“My support system helped me get to here and I would not have been able to do what I have done without my teammates and coaches working hard each day also for us to go to another level,” Story said.

On Friday morning, Gatorade announced Story was the 2019 Alabama Gatorade Player of the Year after Story threw for 38 passing touchdowns and ran for 19 rushing touchdowns during his senior season. Alabama wide receiver, Slade Bolden, was the last Alabama commit to win this award for his respective state.

The Alabama commit finished the state-title game with two passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns, 359 total yards, a fumble recovery and an interception. Story finished his career at Lanett with 13,219 total yards and 175 touchdowns. He is also the AHSAA record holder for total yards and total touchdowns in a career and has a 39-2 record as a starting quarterback.

Alabama will get a signature from Story in December and he plans to enroll in the Summer as he will stay at Lanett for his entire senior year and hopefully bring home another basketball state championship.

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Justin Smith is a Scouting/Recruiting analyst for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via @Jdsmith31Smith