March 13, 2008 — Cy-Fair High School senior basketball player Nneka Ogwumike was named the 2007-2008 Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year today.

The award not only recognizes athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the court . A national advisory board comprised of sportswriters and sport-specific experts from around the country helped select Ogwumike from the nearly 457,000 high school girls basketball players nationwide. Ogwumike is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade Female High School Athlete of the Year award, to be presented at a special afternoon ceremony prior to The ESPY Awards in July.

Ogwumike led the Bobcats to a 39-2 record and their first-ever Class 5A state championship, averaging 18.2 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2.5 steals per game. Named Miss Texas Basketball as a junior in 2007, Ogwumike, 17, was selected for both the McDonald’s All-American and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association All-America games. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball on scholarship at Stanford University this fall.

“I think she’s the epitome of what people want a student-athlete to be,” said Mike Flynn, the girls basketball chairman for the Player of the Year advisory board. “She excels in the classroom, which is easily witnessed by her future matriculation to Stanford, and in her accomplishments on the basketball court. She looks like a really good player until the whistle starts, then she’s a ferocious rebounder, a tenacious defender and an aggressive scorer.”

Cy-Fair HS senior Nneka Ogwumike accepts the 2007-2008 Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year award from Gatorade representative Liz Prassas.

Ogwumike's teammates and younger sisters join her after receiving the award.

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