NCHSAA Athletes of the Year

The top athletic award which any athlete in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association can earn is the NCHSAA Athlete of the Year.

Some of the state's most outstanding prep athletes have earned this honor since its inception in 1986. A committee of sportswriters and sports broadcasters from the state and a panel of Association Staff, makes the selection each spring from nominations received from member schools. The committee accepts nominations from any NCHSAA member school.

Member schools are eligible to nominate one male and one female from their Varsity athletic teams for the year.

Many of the players have gone on to collegiate stardom, and a couple, including Patrick Lennon in professional baseball, Chester McGlockton in the National Football League, and Andrea Stinson in the WNBA, are making their mark in professional athletics.

The winners of this award earn the Pat Best Memorial Trophy. The award is named for the late Pat Best, the former Goldsboro High School principal who was president of the NCHSAA at the time of his death in 1988.