Gatorade® National Football Player Of The Year: JT Daniels
In its 33rd year of honoring the nation's
best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company today announced JT Daniels of
Mater Dei High School (Santa Ana, Calif.) as its 2017-18 Gatorade National
Football Player of the Year. Daniels was surprised with the news by Houston
Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson.
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"JT really deserves to be this year's Gatorade National
Football Player of the Year because he represents everything the award stands
for," said Watson. "Not only has JT excelled on the field, but he's
also a good student and a positive role model in the community. I'm excited to
follow his career and watch all the things he will accomplish in the
future."
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 Daniels as the
nation's best high school football player. A national advisory panel comprised
of sport-specific experts and sports journalists helped select JT from nearly 1
million high school football players nationwide. Daniels is now a finalist for
the prestigious Gatorade Male High School Athlete of the Year award, to be
presented at a special ceremony prior to The ESPY Awards in July.
The state's returning Gatorade Player of the Year, the
6-foot-1, 205-pound junior quarterback had led the Monarchs to a 15-0 record
and the CIF state championship. Ranked as the nation's No. 1 recruit in the
Class of 2019 by Rivals.com, Daniels completed 242-of-335 passes for 3,890
yards and 49 touchdowns against just four interceptions through 14 games. He
also rushed for 513 yards and seven scores on 57 carries. Entering the final
game of his junior year, Daniels has passed for 11,781 yards and 149 touchdowns
in his prep football career.
Daniels has maintained a weighted 4.18 GPA in the classroom.
He has volunteered as part of Mater Dei's Monarchs for Marines program
supporting the troops and families of the First Marine Division stationed at
nearby Camp Pendleton. He has also donated his time locally delivering
care backpacks to the homeless and as a youth football coach.
"JT Daniels is definitely the real deal,"
said Greg Biggins, National Recruiting Analyst for 247Sports. "He's an
elite player. A leader. One of the best quarterbacks I've ever seen. He's also
a great character kid off the field. He's a great choice by Gatorade."
He has verbally committed to play football on scholarship at
the University of Southern California in the fall of 2019.
"Without question, JT is deserving of recognition as
the nation's best high school football player based on his statistics on the
field and the impact his accomplishments have had on Mater Dei's success,"
said Gatorade Senior Vice President and General Manager Brett O'Brien.
"But he is also a shining example to peers and aspiring young athletes of
what a leader and a student-athlete should be. He represents everything we hope
for in a Gatorade Player of the Year recipient."
As a part of Gatorade's cause marketing platform "Play
it Forward," Daniels also has the opportunity to award a $1,000grant
to a local or national youth sports organization of his choosing. He is also
eligible to win one of twelve $10,000spotlight grants for his organization
of choice, which will be announced throughout the year.
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 sports
leadership team in partnership with the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection
Committee, 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.
Former notable Gatorade National Players of the Year
include:
- Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Peyton Manning
- 2015 NBA first overall pick Karl-Anthony Towns
- Three-time WNBA champion Maya Moore
- Four-time track & field gold medalist Allyson Felix
- Three-time beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh
- Three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw
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