Most Improved Player – Ayden Hamilton

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em><strong>Get 25% off your subscription by entering Knight25 in the coupon code area. Enjoy!</strong></em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The 2023 football season is in the books and throughout the last few weeks, we've been taking a look back at some of our favorite moments and some of the top storylines in Oklahoma. Earlier this week, we announced the ten finalists for this season's PRZ-Oklahoma Player Of The Year award. In this post, we're recognizing and putting the spotlight on this year's "Most Improved Player" and we had some great players to select from. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Stay locked in to Prep Redzone Oklahoma for more postseason content! We'll have more individual spotlights and our All State team selections!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Victory Christian senior quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='897801' first='Ayden' last='Hamilton'] is this year's selection for Most Improved Player in Oklahoma. Earlier this week, we named Hamilton as one of ten finalists for our PRZ-Oklahoma Player Of The Year award. This is the blurb that we wrote about Hamilton and his 2023 season.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"Victory Christian senior quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='897801' first='Ayden' last='Hamilton'] took over the QB1 position during the 2022 season and he never gave it up. Hamilton then took his game to a completely new level in 2023 and it's been amazing to see his development as a quarterback considering he didn't start his high school career at Victory or as a quarterback. Hamilton had a 2023 season to remember with numbers that we simply don't see very often. The Victory Christian signal caller threw for over 2,500 yards and 29 touchdowns and also added just over 2,200 yards and 38 touchdowns on the ground. Seeing a quarterback throw for over 2,000 yards and run for over 2,000 yards in the same season doesn't come along every year. We call it the “2K2K club” and the last time that happened (that we know of) was in 2020 with Bishop McGuinness quarterback Luke Tarman and he was a finalist that season. Hamilton helped guide the Conquerors to ten wins and a Class 2A quarterfinal appearance."</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Now, that's what Hamilton accomplished in 2023. Why is that worthy of him being named the "Most Improved Player" in Oklahoma? Look at the path Hamilton has taken to get here. And we're just talking about the path that Hamilton has taken on the football field. This is a kid that has undergone over 40 surgeries in his lifetime after being born with tumors in his throat. So to play the quarterback position at such a high level is a success story in itself.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hamilton started his high school career at Beggs and when he was a sophomore in 2021, he had a very successful season. But as we've seen with high school football, parent politics can often get involved and Hamilton wanted a fresh start. He transferred to Victory Christian and just wanted to get on the football field. That's exactly what he did. Hamilton earned playing time as a junior, mostly on the defensive side of the ball in the secondary. But Hamilton was back to quarterback after an injury to Victory's starter halfway through the regular season. Hamilton put up big numbers in the second half of the season and in the playoffs and the only loss was to Millwood in the semifinals.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Expectations for Hamilton were high coming into this season but I don't think anyone could imagine or predict the type of numbers the Victory signal caller would put up. It was evident early on that Hamilton and this Victory offense was going to be a fun unit to watch when you looked at the numbers they were producing. With over 2,500 passing yards and over 2,200 rushing yards, Hamilton just capped off a winding career with an extraordinary senior season. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->