After coaching A’Niyah Browner for four years in both basketball and flag football, Brianna Brooker isn’t ready to talk about the senior’s legacy at Jenkins High School in the past tense.
“I’m just trying to take it all in, make sure we are still present,” Brooker said on Monday. “She is still an amazing student-athlete. … She still has track going on. She has a lot to still look forward to.”
Browner will conclude her high school career competing for the Warriors in the 200-meter run and the long jump – an event she started only last spring and finished fifth in the state – at the 2026 GHSA Class 3A championships on Thursday at the University of Georgia in Athens.
She started the week on Monday, being honored for all she has already accomplished with the presentation of the 34th annual Hollis Stacy Award as the most versatile high school female athlete in Savannah. The award is named for Stacy, a Savannah High School graduate who was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2012 and Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2014 after an illustrious career as an amateur and as a four-time major champion on the LPGA Tour.
Browner was gracious, thanking God, her mother, Ieisha Browner-Moore, for her sacrifice and pep talks, as well as her family, friends, coaches, teammates, and teachers.
The first Jenkins student to sign to play flag football at the next level in the program’s five-year history, Browner will attend the Savannah College of Art and Design and be part of the Bees’ inaugural season next spring.
“As I continue my journey at SCAD, I hope younger female athletes know they never have to limit themselves,” Browner said at the podium as fellow students watched in the school auditorium. “You can succeed in many areas and still stay true to who you are.”
She pledged to work hard to make her family, the school, and the Savannah community proud. Those who know her have no doubts.
The multitalented Browner, who will study fashion at SCAD, was voted homecoming and prom queen – and designed her prom dress. She has a 3.5 grade-point average and is dual-enrolled at Savannah Tech.
Browner said that she completed her required courses at Jenkins by the end of her junior year because “at the start of sophomore year, I realized I wanted to finish school early and be ahead to go to college.”
Asked how she balances the demands of school and sports, Browner said, “Honestly, it’s very hard.”
“My mom helps me,” Browner said. “She makes sure that I have a schedule and I follow it. Other than that, it would go downhill. Certain days I have to do work. My coach is understanding. I might be late for like 30 minutes just so I can sit in the office and get my work done.
“I had to take three exams at my sectionals track meet right before I had to run,” she continued.
That didn’t prevent Browner from recording a personal-best time of 25.87 seconds in the 200 at sectionals. Her career best in the long jump is 17 feet, 7 inches.
“I’m actually ready,” she said at Monday’s ceremony. “I feel with the PR (in the 200) that I just did at sectionals, I feel like it really helped me and boosted my confidence.”
Versatility? No problem
Voted on by Chatham County high school athletic directors and local media members, the Hollis Stacy Award has, since its creation by the late Gary Moses in 1993, annually recognized a student-athlete who played a sport in each season – fall, winter, and spring – of the school year.
That requirement was not an issue for Browner, who can play – and excel – at most any sport, said her coaches.
“She’s a freak athlete,” said Brooker, herself a former Jenkins student-athlete from the Class of 2009.
“Everybody has to share her,” said James Roberts, the Warriors’ head track and field coach who also coached Browner as a flag football assistant.
“She used to play softball as a freshman as well, and coach (Seth) Gaspin said she was the best softball player out there,” Roberts said. “Even if she wanted to play tennis, she’d be good at it.”
Indeed, Browner was a star, among the best players if not the best on the field, for two of Jenkins’ most accomplished girls programs.
The flag football squad (22-2) was the first girls team in school history to play for a state championship last December at the GHSA Division II final. Browner had three receptions for 124 yards, including a 73-yard touchdown, in a 20-13 loss to nationally ranked Greenbrier.
Browner, who played receiver and linebacker, said her love of football started early with the tackle version.
“I grew up playing football with my siblings and my neighbors. I was just always playing,” said Browner, whose older brother, Reico Collins, is a Jenkins graduate and rising sophomore linebacker at Savannah State University.
“I was too fast. He couldn’t catch me,” she said. “He knows that. I’m still faster than him.”
Her speed, athleticism, and skills translated well to the basketball court, where Brooker’s Warriors became the first Jenkins girls team to reach a state semifinal in the 2024-25 season, and this season captured the Region 3-3A crown (13-0) and advanced to the state quarterfinals in March.
They were 20-9 and 25-5 the past two campaigns, quite the leap from when Browner joined as a freshman guard, “probably shorter than 5-1.” The Warriors were 4-20 (0-11 Region 1-4A) in 2022-23 and 9-17 (2-8) the next season.
“I started working hard and realized that if we keep working hard together, we could get better,” said Browner, now close to 5-4. “I just realized that I could do more than what I thought I could.”
Asked about her legacy at Jenkins, Browner said. “I think I’ll be remembered as hard working and also fun when I can be. I can get serious at moments. You don’t always have to be serious to do your best. You can just be yourself.”
Roberts said that Browner has a joyful personality, “always smiling, just laughing, joking.” He called her very respectful and added, “Her mom raised her well.”
There was at least one time when she didn’t exactly follow his instruction, but it was more like a suggestion and probably wasn’t a surprise. It came after the flag football schedule overlapped with girls basketball season, which overlapped with track and field. Roberts thought she deserved a break before her spring sports season.
“I told her for her sake, take at least a week off,” he recalled. “She took about four days off and texted and said she’s ready to come out there. It’s just her determination.”
Browner joined previous Jenkins award winners Kamesha Mabry (1997), Jasmine Perrett (2011), and BryAnn Pound (2020). New Hampstead graduate Gianna Brown, the Hollis Stacy Award winner in 2024 and 2025, attended Monday’s ceremony.
Hollis Stacy Award Winners
2026 — A'Niyah Browner, Jenkins
2025 — Gianna Brown, New Hampstead
2024 — Gianna Brown, New Hampstead
2023 — Veronica Sierzant, Islands
2022 — Veronica Sierzant, Islands
2021 — Veronica Sierzant, Islands
2020 — BryAnn Pound, Jenkins
2019 — Basia Peragine, CDS, and Elizabeth Winders, SVA
2018 — Anna Bolch, SCD
2017 — Stewart, SVA
2016 — Sarah Stewart, SVA
2015 — Amari Oliver, SCD
2014 — Ewaldsen, SCPS
2013 — Chandler Ewaldsen, SCPS
2012 — Alicia Lawton, Savannah High
2011 — Jasmine Perrett, Jenkins
2010 — Sonny Canady, Calvary
2009 — Katie Covington, Calvary
2008 — Katherine Dotson, SCD
2007 — Christine Phan, Windsor Forest
2006 — Haley Reese, SCD
2005 — Lisa Gray, St. Vincent's Academy
2004 — Sprague, SCD
2003 — Lizzie Sprague, SCD
2002 — Anne Carson, SCD; Kristen Kelly, SCPS
2001 — Caroline Griner, Calvary
2000 — Erin Shields, SCD
1999 — Brooke Cornwell, Savannah Christian
1998 — Arden Wilson, SCD
1997 — Kamesha Mabry, Jenkins
1996 — Booker, SCD
1995 — Catherine Booker, Savannah Country Day
1994 — Susie Kleinpeter, Calvary Day
1993 — Joy Brown, Beach
Photo courtesy of WSAV Sports Director Joey Lamar.
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