Mercer County’s Trevon Faulkner named 2018 Mr. Basketball
Published 5:37 pm Wednesday, March 14, 2018
LEXINGTON — For the people that coached Trevon Faulkner, there was no doubt.
Faulkner was named Mr. Basketball on Tuesday in Lexington, the top individual accolade in the state.
The Northern Kentucky University signee has scored more than 3,000 points and has over 1,100 rebounds for his career at Mercer County.
“I’ve been smiling a lot up there,” Faulkner said. “I’m really happy, I felt really confident. I was kind of nervous before, but when I got it, I don’t know, I just thank God for blessing me the way he has.”
Faulkner and Mercer’s Seygan Robins from the girls basketball team swept the Mr. and Miss Basketball awards — the first time in history that a single school has won both awards.
“It means a lot to our community, we both worked hard for this and it means a lot to both of us,” Faulkner said. “It represents us well … We’ve got the guys here, the girls here, supporting the both of us. Our coaching staff and friends are here, it’s a blessing for both of us.”
Faulkner had four basketball coaches during his varsity basketball tenure — in eighth grade, it was Brian Britt. Freshman and sophomore years, Josh Cook. Junior year, Kurt Young. Senior year, Josh Hamlin.
And on every one of those teams, Faulkner was a positive influence.
“It’s hard to put into words,” Hamlin said. “There’s not a kid that is more deserving. When he walked in the doors he was smiling, when they were introducing him he was smiling, when he got the award he was smiling. I think that’s the lasting impression that I’ll remember about Trevon Faulkner on our program: He always had a constant smile. He always wanted to deflect the attention off of himself, even though he was the one that was deserving of it a lot of times.”
Young led the Titans to the regional championship when Faulkner was a junior. He’s now coaching Frederick Douglass and said he’s one of the best players he’s coached.
“I can’t say how fortunate I was to coach Trevon,” Young said. “In my 20-plus years of coaching he is one of the best players I have coached. He was also one of the most unselfish kids that I have been around. He has been and will continue to be a tremendous ambassador for whatever team he plays for and Mercer County. He has been a great role model for the area, including my son. I am just glad I was blessed enough to coach him for that short amount of time.”
Cook coached the Titans to the state tournament during Faulkner’s sophomore year, and Faulkner was the one to lead the team in scoring. He said Faulkner’s unselfishness is what makes him a special player and person.
“He’s just an unselfish kid. He has always seen the big picture,” Cook said. “When you put the team first, good things happen for you. He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever been around. His leaderships skills, they were always there in the moment that you needed them. The award he got, it’s definitely well-deserved.”
Hamlin was an assistant for Cook, then last year assisted the girls’ basketball team on the way to the state championship before taking the Titans back to the region championship this year.
He noted the historic aspect of Faulkner’s accomplishment — he’s the first 12th Region award-winner in the current alignment.
“To be the first representative of the 12th Region, long, storied history and great players, there’s not a better representation of that award than Trevon Faulkner for our region,” he said. “Same thing for Seygan. You just can’t speak enough adjectives, words, phrases, whatever you want to say about those two kids. Our boys basketball program will never be the same without Trevon, but the impact he’s had on us the past five years, every gym he’s played, everybody who has watched him play talks about his smile and how hard he plays. This kind of culminates his high school career.”