East Paulding High School Standout Named Gatorade Georgia Baseball Player of the Year

CHICAGO (May 28, 2009) — In its third decade of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in partnership with ESPN RISE, today announced Zach Wheeler of East Paulding High School as its 2008-09 Gatorade Georgia Baseball Player of the Year. Wheeler is the first Gatorade Georgia Baseball Player of the Year to be chosen from East Paulding High School.

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 Wheeler as Georgia’s best high school baseball player. Wheeler is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year award to be announced in June.

The 6-foot-4, 180-pound senior right-handed pitcher and designated hitter led the Raiders to a 24-11 record and a berth in the Class AAAAA state postseason tournament semifinals, where they fell to South Forsythe High. Wheeler finished 8-0 with a 0.30 ERA and 135 strikeouts against just 17 walks in 69 innings this season. He also batted .350. A two-time First Team All-State selection and a 2008 Aflac All-American, Wheeler tossed a complete-game, 13-strikeout no-hitter against Mill Creek in the second round of the Class AAAAA tournament.

Wheeler has maintained a B average in the classroom. He has volunteered during the holidays delivering food to disadvantaged families and as a peer mentor at his local community center in addition to donating his time as an area youth baseball coach.

“Wheeler is the real deal,” said Mill Creek Head Baseball Coach Doug Jones. “I’ve been coaching for 20 years and I’ve seen some good players and he plays the game as well as anyone. It’s a man against boys when he’s pitching. He has such an overpowering fastball and a great curveball, when we faced him we could have played all day long and it wouldn’t have mattered. We weren’t going to hit him.”

Wheeler has signed a National Letter of Intent to play baseball on scholarship at Kennesaw State University this fall, but is projected as a first-round selection in next month’s Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.

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. The selection process is administered by ESPN RISE, which works with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.

Wheeler joins recent Gatorade Georgia Baseball Players of the Year Ethan Martin (2007-08 Stephens County), Josh Smoker (2006-07, Calhoun), and Torre Langley (2005-06, Alexander) among the state’s list of former award winners.

For more on the Gatorade Player of the Year program, including nomination information, a list of past winners, and the announcement of the Gatorade National Player of the Year, visit gatorade.com/playeroftheyear.