Williston girls basketball entered the 2025-26 with a simple goal. There was nothing ambiguous about it.
State title or bust.
The Red Devils were the state’s second-best team in the Rural Class in 2025, but they drew the bad luck of being in the same district and region as state champion Wildwood.
Twice Williston held the chance to upend the Wildcats, and twice they failed.
Coach Willie Powers knew this season would come down to those matchups with Wildwood, but he needed to manage a three-month campaign before then.
There, he hit a roadblock.
Ashlyn Young, Williston’s best player and the Sun’s 2024 Player of the Year when she was at P.K. Yonge, suffered an injury in early January. Yes, the Red Devils were deep, but an injury to Young could be catastrophic.
Kierce Solomon had other plans.
Solomon helmed the rag-tag Red Devils through the wilderness without Young. WHS didn’t lose a game in January. In fact, it didn’t lose a game after December 11.
Young returned for districts, where the Red Devils earned their first of two revenges over the Wildcats. The second, a week later, sent Williston to its first ever Final Four.
Even though games in Jacksonville vs. Blountstown and Jay proved more difficult than expected, the Red Devils ended February with a championship trophy.
Two months later, Solomon is the Gainesville Sun’s Small School Girls Basketball Player of the Year. She’s the only Red Devil on the first team, but the balanced squad places three on the second team – Young, Tiona Wilkinson and Janiyah Span.
The first team sees players all from different schools – Solomon, Lafayette’s Havyn Richardson, Hawthorne’s Amarhae Hopkins, Chiefland’s Nyasia Bivens and Fort White’s Jahlaya Wilson.
The second team has the three Red Devils along with Trenton’s Kayley Sloan and the Hornets Brooklynn Gillins.
Congratulations to all those selected!
All-Gainesville-area Small School Girls Basketball First Team
Guard: Havyn Richardson, Lafayette
Guard: Kierce Soloman, Williston
Guard/Forward: Amarhae Hopkins, Hawthorne
Forward: Nyasia Bivens, Chiefland
Forward: Jahlaya Wilson, Fort White
All-Gainesville-area Small School Girls Basketball Second Team
Guard: Ashlyn Young, Williston
Guard: Kayley Sloan, Trenton
Guard/Forward: Tiona Wilkinson, Williston
Forward: Brooklynn Gillins, Hawthorne
Forward: Janiyah Span, Williston
Coach of the Year: Willie Powers, Williston
Willie Powers, the bona-fide legend, won his third state championship this season, along with his P.K. Yonge squads in 2010 and 2012. The title fulfilled a bet Powers made on himself two years ago when he left the confines of Gainesville for Levy County.
The Red Devils went 22-2 with their only losses to Rickards and Tampa Catholic – two teams in the top 60 in Florida. Williston itself finished 11th in the final FHSAA rankings…unheard of for a Rural squad.
Noah Ram covers Florida Gators athletics and Gainesville-area high school sports for The Gainesville Sun, GatorSports.com and the USA TODAY Network. Contact him at nram@usatodayco.com. Follow him on X @Noah_ram1 and on Instagram @Ramreporter.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Williston’s Kierce Solomon leads the All-Area Small School Girls Basketball team
Reporting by Noah Ram, Gainesville Sun / The Gainesville Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
