RMHS' Goodwin selected N.C. Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year

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CHICAGO - In its third decade of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in partnership with ESPN RISE, Thursday announced Brian Goodwin of Rocky Mount High School as its 2008-09 Gatorade North Carolina Baseball Player of the Year. Goodwin is the second Gatorade North Carolina Baseball Player of the Year to be chosen from Rocky Mount High School. The first was Carter Harrell in 2001.

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 Goodwin as North Carolina's best high school baseball player. Goodwin is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year award to be announced in June.

The 6-foot-1, 180-pound senior outfielder finished with a .413 batting average, 25 runs scored, 18 RBI, 15 stolen bases and nine doubles this season, leading the Gryphons (20-3) to the second round of the Class 3A state tournament, where they fell to Winterville South Central, 4-2. An Under Armour All-America Game and Rawlings Preseason First Team AIIAmerican selection, Goodwin compiled a .680 slugging percentage and .532 on-base percentage. Also the Most Valuable Player of the Aflac All-America All-Star Baseball Classic, he led Rocky Mount to the 2008 Class 3A state championship.

Goodwin has maintained a 3.49 weighted GPA in the classroom. He has volunteered as a local youth baseball and football instructor in addition to donating his time at a children's hospital during his trip to Los Angeles for the Aflac AIIAmerica Game.

"He's a true five-tool player," said Jason Mills, head coach of D.H. Conley High, which lost to Rocky Mount earlier this season, 2-1. "He can run, throw, field, hit for power and hit for average. He knows how to play the blessed game. He's got the baseball instinct. He's probably the one player that people worry about everywhere on the field. If he gets on first, he can go to third in two pitches. He makes the team around him better. He's a game-changer."

Goodwin has signed a National Letter of Intent to play baseball on scholarship at the University of North Carolina this fall, but is projected as an early round selection in next month's Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. He was more recently named his school's Male Athlete of the Year for the past school term.

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. The selection process is administered by ESPN RISE, 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.

Goodwin joins recent Gatorade North Carolina Baseball Players of the Year Tyler Hanover (2007-08 North Davidson), Madison Bumgarner (2006-07, South Caldwell), and Lonnie Chisenhall (2007-08, West Carteret) among the state's list of former award winners.

For more on the Gatorade Player of the Year program, including nomination information, a list of past winners, and the announcement of the Gatorade National Player of the Year, visit http://gatorade.comiplayeroftheyear/.