Bentonville's Miller Named Gatorade POTY

In its third decade of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in partnership with ESPN RISE, today announced April Miller of Bentonville High School as its 2008-09 Gatorade Arkansas Girls Soccer Player of the Year.  Miller is the second Gatorade Arkansas Girls Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Bentonville 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 Miller as Arkansas’ best high school girls soccer player.  Miller is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year award to be announced in May.
 
The 5-foot-8 junior midfielder recorded 19 goals and 13 assists this season, leading the Tigers (19-1-1) to the Class 7A state championship.  A two-time Class 7A First Team All-State selection, Miller was the 2009 Class 7A-West Conference Most Valuable Player.  She scored the game-winning goal in the state semifinals, then added two assists in the state final as Bentonville won its second state title in three years.
 
Miller has maintained a 3.06 GPA in the classroom.  In addition to working at a local outdoor soccer facility, Miller has volunteered with her church youth group and raised money to benefit the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.
 
“She has a flamboyancy that is fun for soccer,” said Jakob Nilsson, Miller’s club coach with the NWA Lightning. “Opponents respect and hate her. She’s really a complete package. Several players on their best day can match her in certain areas, but not all areas.”
 
Miller has verbally committed to play soccer on scholarship at Southeast Missouri State University beginning in the fall of 2010.
 
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.
 
Miller joins recent Gatorade Arkansas Girls Soccer Players of the Year Mary Pat Hardin (2007-08, Mount St. Mary Academy), Alyvia Rogers (2006-07, Rogers), and Kelly O'Connor (2005-06, Bentonville) 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 gatorade.com/playeroftheyear.