CHICAGO — In its 40th year of honoring the nation’s most elite high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Taylor Drewry of Basha High School is the 2024-25 Gatorade Arizona Girls Cross Country Player of the Year. Drewry is the first Gatorade Arizona Girls Cross Country Player of the Year to be chosen from Basha High School.

Gatorade Player of the Year is the top honor in high school sports, celebrating the nation’s best high school athletes for their success on the field, in the classroom and in the community. The award distinguishes Drewry as Arizona’s best high school girls cross country athlete, and she joins an impressive group of alumni that spans CEOs, coaches and star athletes such as Jordan Hasay (2008-09, Mission College Preparatory Catholic High School, Ca.), Katelyn Tuohy (2017-18, 2018-19 & 2019-20, North Rockland High School, N.Y.) and Addison Ritzenhein (2023-24, Niwot High School, Co.).

The 5-foot-11 junior won the AIA Division I state meet this past season with a time of 18:09.6, successfully defending her title. Drewry also won the Chandler City Championships in a season-best 17:55.0, one of her four race victories. Last September, she broke the tape in the Blue Varsity A Race at the Woodbridge Classic in California, clocking a 3-mile personal-best of 17:19.80.

A student leader with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Drewry has volunteered locally as an ambassador with “Letters For Rose,” an organization that seeks to mitigate loneliness among the elderly and by fundraising for nursing homes. She has also donated her time with Basha Women’s Club, which is dedicated to community improvement by enhancing the lives of women in need. “On multiple occasions, Taylor Drewry displayed fine yearover-year improvement in 2024, but nothing more impressive than at the state meet,” said Rich Gonzalez of PrepCalTrack. “Facing a tougher slate of challengers last fall, she improved by more than 41 seconds to successfully defend her title.”

Drewry has maintained a weighted 4.28 GPA in the classroom. She will begin her senior year of high school this fall.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states across 12 different high school sports – 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 Player of the Year Selection Committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the state winners in each sport.

Drewry joins recent Gatorade Arizona Girls Cross Country Players of the Year Landen LeBlond (2023-24, Millennium High School) and Lauren Ping (2022-23, Valley Christian High School and 2021-22 & 2020-21, Desert Vista High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.

As part of Gatorade’s commitment to breaking down barriers in sport, every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner. To date, the Gatorade Player of the Year program has provided more than $5.6 million in grants to winners across more than 2,000 organizations.

To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student - athletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com or follow us on social media on Instagram at instagram.com/Gatorade, Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY and X(Twitter) at x.com/Gatorade.