In its 27th year of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, The

Gatorade Company today announced Caroline Coyer of Oakton High School as its

2011-12 Gatorade Virginia Girls Basketball Player of the Year. Coyer is the

second Gatorade Virginia Girls Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from

Oakton 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 Coyer as Virginia's best high school girls

basketball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls

Basketball Player of the Year award announced in March, Coyer joins an elite

alumni association of past state girls basketball award-winners, including

Candace Parker (2003-04, 2002-03, & 2001-02, Naperville Central HS, Ill.), Diana

Taurasi (1998-99 & 1999-00, Don Antonio Lugo HS, Calif.), Maya Moore (2005-06

Collins Hill HS, Ga.), Rashanda McCants (2004-05, Asheville HS, N.C.), Shyra Ely

(1999-00, Ben Davis HS, Ind.) and Lisa Leslie (1988-89, Morningside HS, Calif.).

The 5-foot-10 senior guard has led the Cougars to a 30-0 record and a berth in

the Group AAA state finals against Princess Anne, scheduled for Friday. Coyer

averaged 14.3 points, 5.2 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 3.6 steals entering the

state final four. A two-time Northern Region Player of the Year and a 2011 Group

AAA First Team All-State selection, Coyer has scored 1,556 points and recorded

584 assists in her prep basketball career as one of two Group AAA players ever

to reach 1,500 points and 500 assists.

Coyer has maintained a 3.67 GPA in the classroom. She has donated her time

creating graphics and marketing materials for Fund It America, which raises

money for wounded veteran associations. She has also volunteered locally at

battered women's shelters and as a youth basketball and soccer coach.

"Caroline Coyer is a great team player, but don't get me wrong, when she's on

the floor running the point it's obvious who's in charge," said TJ Dade, head

coach at Robinson High. "She is an extension of her coach on the floor. She gets

her teammates involved and makes everyone around her better."

Coyer has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball on an athletic

scholarship at Villanova University 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, 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.

Coyer joins recent Gatorade Virginia Girls Basketball Players of the Year

Elizabeth Williams (2010-11 & 2009-10, Princess Anne High School), Tierra

Ruffin-Pratt (2008-09 & 2007-08, T.C. Williams), Jasmine Thomas (2006-07,

Oakton), Khadijah Whittington (2003-04, Woodrow Wilson), and Tiffany Green

(2002-03, Washington-Lee) among the state's list of former award winners.

 

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