In its 28th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports, today announced Chelsea Drennan of T.L. Hanna High School as its 2012-13 Gatorade South Carolina Girls Soccer Player of the Year. Drennan is the first Gatorade South Carolina Girls Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from T.L. Hanna 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 field, distinguishes Drennan as South Carolina’s best high school girls soccer player.
The 5-foot-9 senior midfielder recorded 39 goals and 16 assists this past season, leading the Rams (17-4) to the Class 4A state quarterfinals. A two-time South Carolina Coaches Association of Women’s Sports Class 4A state Player of the Year, Drennan is a three-time Class 4A First Team All-State honoree and a 2012 All-American selection by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. She concluded her prep soccer career with 115 goals and 55 assists.
Drennan has maintained a weighted 4.8 GPA in the classroom. A member of the Mu Alpha Theta math honor society, she has volunteered locally as a peer tutor, youth soccer coach and as part of multiple community service initiatives in association with her church youth group.
“Chelsea Drennan can take a game over,” said Kevin Czar, head coach of Mauldin High. “She can control the middle of the field and is dangerous in the air. She is a presence on any set piece both offensive and defensive. She is a complete player.”
Drennan has signed a National Letter of Intent to play soccer on an athletic scholarship at the University of South Carolina 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.
Drennan joins recent Gatorade South Carolina Girls Soccer Players of the Year Stephanie DeVita (2011-12, 2010 – 11 & 2009-10, Hillcrest High School), Sarah Schaidle (2008–09 Mauldin), and Kira Campbell (2007-08 & 2006-2007, Lexington), among the state’s list of former award winners.
