GREEN HOPE HIGH SCHOOL STANDOUT NAMED GATORADE NORTH CAROLINA GIRLS SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR
CHICAGO — In its 28th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports, has announced Alexis Shaffer of Green Hope High School as its 2012-13 Gatorade North Carolina Girls Soccer Player of the Year. Shaffer is the second Gatorade North Carolina Girls Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Green Hope.
The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Shaffer as North Carolina’s best high school girls soccer player.
The state’s returning Gatorade Player of the Year, the 5-foot-8 senior forward and midfielder led the Falcons to a 28-0 record and the NCHSAA state 4-A championship. Shaffer scored 39 goals and recorded multiple points 16 times. A two-time Youth All- American selection and a 2012 High School All-American honoree by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, Shaffer led her club team, the Capital Area Soccer League Chelsea Ladies 94, to back-to-back Elite Club National League national championships.
Shaffer has maintained a 3.95 GPA in the classroom. She has volunteered locally as part of a fundraising campaign to benefit cancer research, as a youth soccer coach and on behalf of the Special Olympics.
“Alexis is an incredible athlete who is extremely creative and crafty,” said Bobby Peterson, head coach of Green Hope. “She is so quick with the ball that it gives her the ability to change the game.”
Shaffer has signed a National Letter of Intent to play soccer on an athletic scholarship at the University of Virginia this fall.
The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport. The selection process is administered by the Gatorade high school sports leadership team in partnership with USA TODAY High School Sports, which work with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.
Two-time winner Shaffer joins Gatorade North Carolina Girls Soccer Players of the Year Nicole Danford (2007-08, Green Hope), and Nicole Panek (2006-2007, Mount Tabor) among the state’s list of former award winners.
For more on the Gatorade Player of the Year program, including nomination information, a complete list of past winners and the announcement of the Gatorade National Player of the Year, visit www.gatorade.com/poy.
