Wesleyan School Standout Named 2008-2009 Gatorade Georgia Girls Basketball Player of the Year

CHICAGO (March 12, 2009) — In its third decade of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in partnership with ESPN RISE, today announced Anne Marie Armstrong of Wesleyan School as its 2008-09 Gatorade Georgia Girls Basketball Player of the Year. Armstrong is the first Gatorade Georgia Girls Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from Wesleyan 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 Armstrong as Georgia’s best high school girls basketball player. Armstrong is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year award to be announced in mid-March.

The senior wing averages 18.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 2.9 steals and 2.0 blocks per game for the Wolves (27-4), who were scheduled to play Randolph-Clay in the Class A state semifinals on March 11. The returning National Player of the Year as named by the National Christian School Athletic Association, the 6-foot-3 Armstrong shoots 50 percent from the floor, 70 percent from the free throw line and 31 percent from behind the 3-point line. The returning Miss Georgia Basketball as named by the Atlanta Tipoff Club, she led Wesleyan to the 2007-08 Class A state championship.

Also a First Team All-State volleyball player, Armstrong has maintained a B average in the classroom. She has volunteered as a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, at the Atlanta Civic Center and on behalf of the National Charity League.

“She’s a great player,” said Chandler Means, head coach of rival Greater Atlanta Christian School. “She’s a fierce competitor. Her size, athletic ability, competitiveness and intelligence make her a difficult player to match up against. She’s not a true point guard, and she’s not a true wing, but she’s good at all positions. No matter how you defend her, she’s a very, very difficult matchup for anybody. And I think she will be in college, too.”

Armstrong has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball on scholarship at the University of Georgia 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. 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.

Armstrong joins recent Gatorade Georgia Girls Basketball Players of the Year Alicia Manning (2007-08, Etowah HS) and Maya Moore (2006-07 & 2005-06, Collins Hill HS) 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.