Le'Ezra Brown, Adelaide Jernigan named NCHSAA Athletes of the Year

@[Le'Ezra Brown] from Dudley High School and @[Adelaide Jernigan] from Bishop McGuinness were named the 2024-2025 Pat Best Memorial Trophy winners on Wednesday, which goes to the N.C. High School Athletic Association’s Male & Female Athletes of the Year.

Brown won his second consecutive Most Outstanding Performer award at the 2025 Outdoor Track and Field Championship this spring. He broke his own state meet record in the 55-meter hurdles this winter at the 2025 Indoor Track and Field Championships, and he won both the 100-meter and 110-meter hurdles at the Outdoor Track and Field Championships, breaking his own record again in the hurdles.

He was also a part of the 4x100-meter relay team that won the state title.

Brown was a safety on the football team as well, recording 44 tackles and an interception this season.

Jernigan was a member of the 1A Women’s Dual Team Tennis State Championship Team and won her match in the Championship, 6-3, 6-2. The Villains finished the year 19-1.

On the basketball court, she is Bishop McGuinness’ all-time leader in both 3-pointers and scoring as she racked up 2,528 points. She led her team to three Regional Finals and two State Championships.

This season, she led her team to the Regional Finals where she put on a heroic performance in one of the most memorable games of the NCHSAA Championship Week. She scored 25 points, made three threes, had seven rebounds and three steals as her team came up just four points shy of returning to the championship game.

She never lost a conference game in her career and averaged 27.3 points this season as well as six rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2.5 steals.

Next year, she will lace it up for the Wolfpack of NC State.

The Pat Best Memorial Trophies were awarded on Wednesday morning at the NCHSAA Awards Ceremony in Piedmont Hall at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex. This is the 40th year the NCHSAA has given the award.