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Redding wins 'Tampa Bay's Best' voting

Ex-Clearwater star named region's top prep girls' basketball player ever

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By JOEY JOHNSTON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 7, 2008

TAMPA - TAMPA - Former Clearwater High School star Dominique Redding was named Monday night as the leading vote-getter in Tampa Bay's Best, a season-long Tampa Tribune project that saluted the region's top players in prep girls basketball.

Dominique Redding

Redding was honored during a public ceremony at the Channelside Bay Plaza courtyard. Redding was unable to attend because she was in Norrkoping, Sweden, where she just completed her first season as a professional player.

There were 1,535 online votes cast on TBO.com during a two-week period in March. Redding received 652 votes, followed by Sherisha Hills (Academy of the Holy Names) with 466, Necole Tunsil (Lakewood) with 186, Bernice Mosby (Hernando) with 147 and Akita Heatly (Boca Ciega) with 84.

"I'm so, so sorry I couldn't be there in person, but I'm so, so flattered to be remembered like this,'' Redding said. "My days at Clearwater will always be with me. It's so nice to know that people remember me like this, especially when you consider the quality of girls basketball in the Tampa Bay area.''

Working in a 10-county area, the Tribune solicited nominations for the best all-time player at 101 different high schools. That list was narrowed to 35 finalists. After voting by a 15-person panel of longtime coaches, Tampa Bay's Best had its Final Five.

Redding, a member of Tennessee's 2007 national championship team, averaged 27 points and nine rebounds for the Norrkoping Dolphins. She will return to United States this week, and has a tryout scheduled with Atlanta's WNBA expansion team.

Hills, who played collegiately at Notre Dame and Florida, attended the public event after coming from her home in New Jersey. Heatly, who lives and works in Tallahassee, also attended, along with Tunsil, the coach at Lakewood, her alma mater.

Mosby, who plays for the WNBA's Washington Mystics, is rehabilitating from an injury and could not attend.

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