CHICAGO — In its 30th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports, has announced Candace Hill of Rockdale County High School as its 2014-15 Gatorade Georgia Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year. Hill is the first Gatorade Georgia Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year to be chosen from Rockdale County 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 track, distinguishes Hill as Georgia’s best high school girls track & field athlete. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year award to be announced in June, Hill joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Allyson Felix (2001-02, Los Angeles Baptist, Calif.), Derek Jeter (1991-92, Kalamazoo HS, Mich.), Candace Parker (2001-02, Naperville Central HS, Ill.), Abby Wambach (1997-98, Our Lady of Mercy, N.Y.), Mark Sanchez (2004-05, Mission Viejo HS, Calif.), Lolo Jones (1997-98, Roosevelt HS, Ia.) and Bianca Knight (2006-07, Ridgeland HS, Miss.).
The 5-foot-8 sophomore won the 200-meter dash with a state-record time of 23.05 seconds and the 100-meter dash in a state-record 11.34 at the Class 6A state championship meet this spring. The state’s returning Gatorade Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year, Hill also won the Adidas Dream 100, the 200-meter race at the Prefontaine Classic and both the 100 and 200 at the Great Southwest Classic. Hill’s season-best times in the 100 and 200 both rank as the nation’s No. 1 performances among prep competitors in 2015 at the time of her selection.
Hill has maintained a weighted 4.61 GPA in the classroom. A member of her school’s Beta Club, she has volunteered locally on behalf of food, toy and clothing drives.
“What she’s doing at this age is just special,” said Rockdale County coach Venson Elder. “There isn’t really anyone to measure her against. Her goal is still to make the Olympics in 2016.”
Hill will begin her junior year of high school 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 high school sports leadership team in partnership with USA TODAY High School Sports, 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.
Two-time winner Hill joins Gatorade Georgia Girls Track & Field Athletes of the Year Kendell Williams (2012-13, 2011-12, 2010–11 & 2009-10, Kell High School), Chalonda Goodman (2008–09 & 2007-08, Newnan), and Brittany Long (2006-07, Therrell) among the state’s list of former award winners.
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