Wildcat top athletes named

CLOVIS - The 2019-20 Clovis High School sports season was humming right along.

The Wildcats' football team reached the 6A semifinals. Jerrick Maldonado finished second at the state cross country meet. The Clovis boys basketball team hosted a state playoff game for the first time since 2013.

And then came the second week of March.

Everything came to a screeching halt because of the coronavirus, ending Clovis' spring sports season just a couple of weeks in. So, when the top Wildcat athletes of the year were announced recently, it put some kind of closure, and more importantly some kind of positivity, at the end of what had become a uniquely bizarre school year.

The Wildcats' top male athlete voting finished in a tie between football, basketball and track & field standouts Bryce Cabeldue and Malik Phillips, so both were given the honors. Clovis' top female athlete was Aydan Everett, who starred on the soccer field and basketball court.

For their coaches, the award announcements received metaphoric thumbs up. Starting with Everett, who was part of the heart and soul of Clovis' girls soccer and basketball programs.

"I think it's well-deserved," Clovis girls soccer coach Traci Sievers said. "She was a team captain for us, and was a leader on the field and off the field."

"I thought she was very deserving of it," Lady Wildcats basketball coach Jeff Reed said. "She was a very good player in soccer and basketball; she was a starter on both teams. She's a heck of a kid, too. I had her in class and have known her for a long time; her mom was the president of our booster club. She's one of those kids that's great to coach because she'll do anything you ask her to do. So I was really proud of her for getting that award."

Everett will play soccer for two-year Hesston College in Hesston, Kansas, and will try to walk on to the women's basketball team.

As for the top male Wildcat, voters apparently couldn't decide between Phillips and Cabeldue, which sounded about right to Clovis boys basketball coach Jaden Isler and Wildcats football coach Cal Fullerton.

"Those two were very deserving of it," Isler said. "I was honestly happy that they gave it to both of them because it was going to be a hard choice for just one of them to get it."

"I think it couldn't have gone to anybody more deserving than those two guys," Fullerton said. "They're both three-sport athletes. Especially on the football side they give everything they've got every day. They're just true Wildcats through and through."

Cabeldue, named an all-state offensive lineman last fall, was recruited by Les Myles to play for the Kansas Jayhawks. Phillips, who led the Clovis boys basketball team in assists, will focus on football in college, beginning his collegiate career on the JUCO route at New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell. Phillips' pursuing football shouldn't be too surprising, since he was named District 2/6A's Offensive Player of the Year in 2019 after notching 78 receptions for 1,147 yards and 17 touchdowns through the Wildcats' 12 games.

All the athletes have the makings for success, according to their coaches.

Everett is a hard worker, even in the offseason.

"She did a lot of practicing," Reed said. "She's very dedicated."

In-season, Everett tries to be a great teammate.

"She leads by example," Sievers said. "She likes to involve the younger players, and she's pretty vocal."

Phillips and Cabeldue made their presence felt in Clovis athletics and beyond.

"What they do, not just on the field but outside the stadium - in the classroom and the community," Fullerton said. "What they put into everything they do is what makes them successful. They put their hearts and souls into everything. Pretty special guys right there. ... It's amazing how much they grew up since they were both freshmen."

"Those guys are going to be successful because of their work ethic," Isler said, "and it's going to move far past athletics for those guys. Whatever they do after sports, they're going to be successful. They're both talented and smart. They're both going to be successful at whatever they choose to do in life."