CHICAGO — In its 36th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade has selected Brock Vandagriff of Prince Avenue Christian School as its 2020-21 Gatorade Georgia Football Player of the Year. Vandagriff is the first Gatorade Georgia Football Player of the Year to be chosen from Prince Avenue Christian 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 Vandagriff as Georgia’s best high school football player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Football Player of the Year award to be announced in May, Vandagriff joins an elite group of past state football award-winners, including Emmitt Smith (1986-87, Escambia High School, Fla.), Matthew Stafford (2005-06, Highland Park High School, Texas) and Christian McCaffrey (2012-13 & 2013-14, Valor Christian High School, Colo.).
The 6-foot-3, 205-pound senior quarterback led the Wolverines to a 13-1 record and the Class 1A Private state championship this past season. Vandagriff passed for 4,169 yards and 46 touchdowns, completing 252 of 356 passes and throwing just seven interceptions. He also rushed for 503 yards and 17 TDs on 104 carries. The Atlanta Journal Constitution Player of the Year and the Class 1A Private Offensive Player of the Year, Vandagriff was named Mr. Georgia by the Touchdown Club of Atlanta. He was selected High School Quarterback of the Year by the National Quarterback Club and was a finalist for the All-American Bowl adidas Player of the Year. Vandagriff is ranked as the nation’s No. 7 recruit by Rivals.com.
A devoted member of his church community, Vandagriff has volunteered on behalf of food donation drives and youth sports programs. “Vandagriff is an elite difference-maker with exceptional skill,” said Chris Williams, head coach at Athens Christian School. “He’s accurate and has great arm strength. He’s mobile too—he’s a major threat whenever the ball is in his hands.”
Vandagriff has maintained a 4.04 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to play football 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, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport. The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, 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.
Vandagriff joins recent Gatorade Georgia Football Players of the Year Arik Gilbert (2019-20, Marietta High School), Jamious Griffin (2018-19, Rome High School), and Trevor Lawrence (2017-18 & 2016-17 Cartersville High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.
Through Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Vandagriff has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of their choosing. Vandagriff is also eligible to submit a 30-second video explaining why the organization they chose is deserving of one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants, which will be announced throughout the year. To date, Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants have totaled more than $2.7 million across 1,117 organizations.
Since the program’s inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of professional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming coaches, business owners and educators.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/Gatorade.
