2013 NHSCA Senior Athletes of the Year

by Jeff Fisher

Host, NHSCA Sports Hour

Follow @NHSCARadioShow

 

The National High SchoolCoaches Association (NHSCA) today announced its selections as National High School Senior Athletes of the Year for 2013.

It is the 14th year straight year the NHSCA has honored these achievers in the high school athletic community nationwide. This year’s recipients, selected in a total of 20 boys and girls sports, are from 16 different states. New Jersey topped the list with three athletes being honored – California and Florida had two each.

While these athletes represent a multitude of different backgrounds, they exhibit a common theme: a strong dedication to developing their skills and preparing themselves to become the productive leaders of tomorrow.

“The 20 young men and women we are honoring today represent the thousands of success stories produced in high school athletics,” NHSCA executive director Bob Ferraro Jr. said. “They have worked extremely hard to develop their skills and have become not just great athletes, but outstanding role models as well, and we are proud to be honoring them.”

Each one of the honorees will be honored in the National High School Sports Hall of Fame Museum that the NHSCA will be building in Easton, Pennsylvania.

Following are the NHSCA’s selections as National High School Athletes of the Year:

Baseball

Clint Frazier – Loganville High School, Loganville, Georgia

Clint Frazier capped his high school career by being drafted by the Cleveland Indians with the fifth overall pick in the 2013 Major League Baseball Draft in June. The 6-foot, 180-pound senior centerfielder batted .485 with 17 home runs, 56 runs scored, 45 RBI and a 1.134 slugging percentage this season. Frazier led Loganville (26-6) to the Class AAAAA quarterfinals this past season.  Frazier has already signed his major league contract.

Boys’ Basketball

Jabari Parker – Simeon High School, Chicago

Jabari Parker leaves the Chicago high school basketball scene the way he entered it – a champion. Parker, who will attend Duke in the fall, led Simeon to its fourth straight Illinois Class 4A championship during the 2012-13 season.  What made Parker’s senior season special was the fact that he was able to battle back from a broken foot that he suffered during last summer. Even though he wasn’t 100 percent at the start of the season, Parker led his team to a 30-3 record while averaging 18 points and 10 rebounds per game.

Girls’ Basketball

Saniya Chong – Ossining High School, Ossining, New York

Saniya Chong, who has accepted a scholarship to play college basketball at national powerhouse UConn, had an incredible season leading her school to its first-ever New York State Public Schools state championship during the 2012-13 season.  Chong set a New York State single-season record with 928 points for an average of 34.4 points per game. Chong also averaged 9.1 assists per game.

Boys’ Cross Country

Edward Cheserek - St. Benedict’s Prep, Newark, New Jersey

Edward Cheserek may have had the best-ever high school cross-country career ever. While he was the nation’s top-ranked runner throughout most of his high school career, it was his story of coming to America as an orphan from Kenya caught the attention of the running community. Cheserek, who will attend Oregon on a scholarship, won the prestigious Foot Locker Nationals as a junior and a senior, plus set several national records including the high school indoor two-mile record.

Girls’ Cross County

Catarina Rocha – Peabody High School, Peabody, Massachusetts

Catarina Rocha, Massachusetts’ two-time state champ, made her mark on the national scene during her cross-country career.  Rocha finished second at the 2012 Foot Locker National Championships last December, which was an improvement over 7^th place finish as a junior and 31^st place finish as a sophomore. Rocha will attend Providence College in the fall and will compete in cross country, plus indoor and outdoor track. 

Field Hockey

Lexi Smith – Florence High School, Florence, New Jersey

Lexi Smith finishes her field hockey career as the nation’s all-time leading goal scorer. Smith, who will play college field hockey at College of New Jersey, scored 191 goals in four years.  A glimpse of the future was given during Smith’s freshman year when she scored 44 goals.

Football

Derrick Henry – Yulee High School, Yulee, Florida

Derrick Henry closed-out an incredible four-year career by breaking two rushing records.  Henry broke the Florida all-time single season rushing record with 4,260 yards on 464 carries.  In the process, he also broke the six-decade old national rushing record of 11,232 yards by Ken Hall of Sugar Land High School in Texas in the early 50's.  Henry ended his career with 12,121 yards rushing on 1,389 carries.  Both of those marks are national records. Henry never failed to top 100 yards in a game during his 47 game career, plus he also scored 153 career touchdowns

Boys’ Golf

Andrew Bieber – Gilmour Academy, Gates Mills, Ohio

Andrew Bieber won his second straight Ohio Division III state golf championship in the Fall. Bieber, who will attend Duke on a golfing scholarship, shot a 144 over the two rounds of the 2012 state championships, which set a course record for the NorthStar Golf Resort course.  Bieber was also honored in October as the GTM Sportswear Athlete of the Month.

Girls’ Golf

Jessie Sindlinger – Charles City High School, Charles City, Iowa

Jessie Sindlinger joined an elite club in May when she won her fourth straight Iowa state golf championship. Sindlinger, who will attend the University of Iowa on a golf scholarship, shot a 65 at the Ames Golf and Country Club to become just the second four-time state champ in Iowa – an the first in over 50 years.  Sindlinger qualified for the 2012 PGA Junior Championship.

Boys’ Soccer

Christian Roldan – El Rancho High School, Pico Rivera, California

Christian Roldan had an incredible senior season, scoring 54 goals while passing for 31 assists. Roldan’s explosive year led El Rancho to the California Interscholastic Federation’s Southern Section Division 3 championship with a 29-2-1 record.  Roldan actually scored more goals this year than he did in his first three years. The University of Washington recruit entered this season with 40 total goals and ends his career with 94 plus 71 assists.

Girls’ Soccer

Morgan Andrews – Milford High School, Milford, New Hampshire

Morgan Andrews, who will attend Notre Dame in the Fall, was the #1 ranked girls’ soccer player in America.  Andrews closed-out her high school career as Milford’s all-time leading scorer with 114 goals and 53 assists.  Andrews has been a member of the U.S. National Soccer youth national team for the past five years.  She is also the only athlete in America to win back-to-back Gatorade National Player of the Year Awards, having won in 2012 and 2013

Softball

Carley Hoover - D.W. Daniel High School, Central, South Carolina

Stanford-bound Carley Hoover was virtually unhittable during her senior season. Hoover finished the season with a 0.15 ERA with 338 strikeouts in 138 innings.  The four-time All-State selection was also great at the plate – hitting .500 with four home runs and 45 runs scored.

Boys’ Swimming

Austin Garcia – San Dimas High School, San Dimas, California

Austin Garcia capped an incredible career this past spring by winning gold medals in the highly competitive CIF-Southern Section in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle. In the 50-yard freestyle, Garcia just missed setting a meet record with a time of 21.14. Garcia, who plans on playing for the water polo team at Air Force next season, was the only swimmer to win two goal medals this year.

Girls’ Swimming

Missy Franklin – Regis Jesuit, Aurora Colorado

While Missy Franklin won America’s hearts at the 2012 London Olympic Games with four gold medals and a bronze, it was what she did in high school that really stands-out. Franklin didn’t rest on her Olympic glory – instead she returned to Regis Jesuit to swim with her friends for her senior season. Franklin led here school to the Colorado 5A title, its second in three years. In the pool, Franklin won two individual gold medals this year and two for her team’s 200 and 400 relay teams while setting a national record in the 200-yard individual medley.

Boys’ Tennis

Miguel Alda – Westwood High School, Round Rock, Texas

Miguel Alda won the Texas Class 5A individual tennis championship this spring after losing the first set in the finals. Alda, who will attend Columbia Univesity, rallied to beat Frankie Colunga of A&M Consolidated 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Miguel’s sister Rosalia was also a 5A state champ back in 2007.  Alda was also named an All-American by the National High School Tennis All-American Foundation, which salutes the Top 40 high school athletes in the United States.

Girls’ Tennis

Rasheeda McAdoo – American Heritage High School, Delray Beach, Florida

Rasheeda McAdoo closed-out her high school career by winning her second straight overall Florida individual singles title. McAdoo, who is the daughter of NBA legend Bob McAdoo, who is currently an assistant coach with the NBA champion Miami Heat, is only one of 24 girls to win more than one Florida individual state championship since the state began holding them in 1938. McAdoo, who will attend Georgia Tech on a tennis scholarship, is ranked #5 in America on the junior circuit.  She was undefeated as a junior and a senior.

Boys’ Track and Field

Grant Hill – Huntsville High School, Huntsville, Alabama

Grant Hill won two gold medals at this year’s Alabama Class 6A Track & Field Championships. Hill, who will attend the University of Alabama on a football scholarship, won the discus with a throw of 176 feet, 1 inch. Hill is ranked #2 in the nation in the discus and earlier in the season has a season-best throw of 203-7.  Hill also won the 6A shot put gold medal with a mark of 54.3.75.

Girls’ Track and Field

Haley Crouser – Gresham High School, Gresham, Oregon

Haley Crouser holds the United States high school national record in the javelin with a throw of 181-feet, 2-inches.  She set that mark as a junior and continued he outstanding career as a senior by being ranked #1 in the nation throughout the year on her way to a gold medal in the Oregon Class 6A championships – her fourth title in the event.  Crouser, who will attend the University of Oregon, also won the gold medal in the shot put this past spring.

Volleyball

Amber and Kadie Rolfzen, Papillion-La Vista South High School, Papillion, Nebraska

Twins Amber and Kadie Rolfzen, who now head together to the University of Nebraska, had a nearly perfect career at Papillion-La Vista South. The Rolfzens led the school to a 126-1 record while capturing three straight Nebraska Class A state titles. In  2012, Amber recorded 390 kills compared to Kadie’s 369; both recorded 38 blocks; and both were members of the U.S. Junior Women’s Team in 2011 and 2012.

Wrestling

BJ Clagon - Toms River South High School, Toms River, New Jersey

BJ Clagon closed-out his high school career in-style in April by becoming just the third wrestler ever to win four straight NHSCA national championships. Clagon, who is a two-time New Jersey state wrestling champ, won the 145-pound title at the Senior Nationals. Clagon, who will wrestle in college at Rider, finished his career at Toms River South with a 155-6 record and 85 straight victories at the end of his career.