CHICAGO (December 14, 2011) — In its 27th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with ESPNHS, today announced Mary Hannah Arrington of Pope High School as its 2011-12 Gatorade Georgia Volleyball Player of the Year. Hannah Arrington is the second Gatorade Georgia Volleyball Player of the Year to be chosen from Pope 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 court, distinguishes Hannah Arrington as Georgia’s best high school volleyball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Volleyball Player of the Year award announced in December, Hannah Arrington joins an elite alumni association of past state volleyball award winners, including USA Volleyball players Kim Glass (2001-02, Horseshoe HS, Penn.), Kim Willoughby (1998-99, 1999-00, Assumption HS, La.) and Ogonna Nnamani (1999-00, University HS, Ill).
A 5-foot-9 senior outside hitter, Arrington led the Greyhounds to a 43-2 record and a third consecutive Class AAAA state championship this past season. The returning Class AAAA Player of the Year as named by the Georgia Volleyball Coaches Association, Arrington amassed 473 kills, 242 digs, 67 service aces, 17 blocks and 10 assists while recording a .493 hitting percentage and .598 kill percentage. An Under Armour Honorable Mention All-American, Arrington totaled 24 kills and 12 digs in the 3-1 state title victory against Whitewater. A three-time Class AAAA First Team All-State selection, she compiled 452 kills and 265 digs as a junior in 2010.
Arrington has maintained a 3.95 weighted GPA in the classroom and is a member of her school’s foreign language, Renaissance and Beta clubs. In addition to donating her time as a youth volleyball and swim instructor, she has volunteered on behalf of her church community and as a fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
“Arrington is the kid who, defensively—if you need a dig that’s going to change the outcome of a match—she’s going to make that play,” said Bob Westbrook, A5 Volleyball Club Director. “She’s a tremendous offensive player as well. She’s grown in that area every single year, and she’s responded to the pressure of being a leader of her program on a regular basis. She’s an extraordinary competitor. She has that quality that’s very rare in that she makes other people around her better.”
Arrington has signed a National Letter of Intent to play volleyball on scholarship at Auburn University beginning in the fall of 2012.
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 ESPNHS and the Gatorade high school sports leadership team, 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.
Hannah Arrington joins recent Gatorade Georgia Volleyball Players of the Year Kelly Murphy (2010-11, Walton High School), Mary Hoey (2009-10, Pope) and Monique Mead (2008-09, Landmark Christian) among the state’s list of former award winners.
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