75 years of honoring America's best.

Recognition of great performances goes hand in hand with education. From its earliest issues, Scholastic Coach made honoring great coaches, great players, and great teams part of its game plan.

Back in the early '30s, Scholastic joined with the National Rifle Association to promote the sport, a widely popular activity at the time. Next came baseball, softball (sponsored by Pepsi), and tennis. Outstanding teams were identified every spring, with certificates of recognition going to players in those sports. They even included women's teams, 40 years or so before Title IX made it the thing to do.

The first Scholastic Coach All-American team arrived in September 1951, just as the magazine was celebrating its 20th anniversary. The initial A-A team honored the nation's top high school track-and-field stars, led by future Olympic superstar hurdler Milt Campbell of Plainfield (NJ) and sprinter Ira Murchison of Chicago Phillips. Not unexpectedly, the strength events provided future football greats, like New York Giants' tackle Rosey Grier of Roselle (NJ), shot-putter and javelin-thrower extraordinaire.

That effort was so successful that football joined the ranks following the '51 season. Joe Krupa of Chicago Weber, later a Pro Bowl tackle with the Pittsburgh Steelers, was the team heavyweight at a mere 240 pounds, eight pounds more than his NFL playing weight. But the leading lights of that first All-American team were a pair of quarterbacks, Bart Starr of Montgomery (AL) Lanier and Earl Morrall of Muskegon (MI).

It took five more years for the next addition, boys basketball. Oscar Robertson of Indianapolis Crispus Attucks was the clear-cut leader of the initial 1956 team. But who could argue with the rest of the lineup, which included Jerry West of East Bank (WV), Doug Moe of Brooklyn (NY) Erasmus Hall, and Jerry Lucas of Middletown (OH).

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In response to Title IX, both girls basketball and girls track joined the parade in the 70s, with the same stellar results. Adidas came on board as the sponsor of the All-American team program. And by the early '80s, wrestling was briefly added to the list.

In 1980, the U. S. Army worked with Scholastic Coach to create the first mass-market national athletic awards program, the Army Scholar-Athlete program, honoring one male and one female varsity athlete at each high school in America. To qualify, the athlete only needed to be a varsity letter-winner. From among that group, each school then selected its top male and female student-athlete. Within a few years, the program was recognizing close to 17,500 youngsters annually. In the mid-1980s, cosmetics maker Bonne Bell threw its support behind women's distance running, honoring the top10% of female cross-country runners and then selecting an All-American girls cross-country team.

Over the years, other sponsored awards programs have included the Army Reserve MVSP (Most Valuable Senior Player) in boys and girls soccer, the Franklin Life Insurance Coaching Awards (which rostered more than 11,000 winners in its three-year run), the Norelco Tripleheader Scholarship Program (distributing $15,000 in scholarships annually to scholar-athletes), the K-Swiss Scholarships, Schutt Sports' All-American HS Football Team, the Reebok Junior All-Stars (football) and the AFLAC Assistant Coach of the Year program, recognizing outstanding assistant coaches on both the high school and college levels.

But the superstar of Scholastic Coach & AD awards for the last 21 years has been the Gatorade High School Player of the Year program. What began as an idea for a high school football award in March 1985 instantly expanded to include boys soccer, boys and girls basketball, baseball, and boys and girls track & field. Its success subsequently led to the addition of girls volleyball (1995), girls soccer (1997), and fast-pitch softball (1998).

Why has the Gatorade Player of the Year become the most highly-sought high school award? Because it doesn't merely honor young people for their on-field accomplishments. The program's mission, then as now, was to salute great athletes whose character and academic credentials were as impressive as their athletic performance. Those high standards apply to both the State Players of the Year in each sport as well as the National Player of the Year.

Football's Jeff George of Indianapolis (IN) Warren Central won the first Gatorade National Player of the Year award in December 1985. Future North Carolina All-American J. R. Reid of Virginia Beach (VA) Kempsville was named as the first boys basketball winner a couple of months later. Tampa (FL) Hillsborough's Gary Sheffield captured the initial baseball award in June 1986.

The alumni list of state and national winners is a virtual who's who of American sports for the last two decades. Here are some of the highlights of the accomplishments of the national winners since 1985:

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Football: Emmitt Smith of Pensacola (FL) Escambia, the NFL's all-time leading rusher, was the second football winner in 1986. He's a sure-fire future Hall of Famer, as is the 1993 winner, Peyton Manning of New Orleans (LA) Isidore Newman.

Volleyball: Olympic beach volleyball gold-medalist Kerri Walsh (San Jose Mitty) was the initial winner in 1995-96. College players of the year and Olympians Logan Tom (Salt Lake City Highland) and Ogonna Nnamani (University, Normal, IL) were the 1998-99 and 2000-01 winners, respectively. Cynthia Barboza of Long Beach (CA) Wilson is the only two-time National Volleyball Player of the Year.

Boys Soccer: Ex-US National Team captain and two-time Hermann Award winner Claudio Reyna, the 1990-91 winner from Newark (NJ) St. Benedict's, heads his sport's alumni group. Other past National Players of the Year who've won the Hermann Award include Matt McKeon of St. Louis (MO) DeSmet Jesuit, Mike Fisher of Batavia (IL), and Alecko Eskandarian of Oradell (NJ) Bergen Catholic.

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Girls Soccer: The first two Gatorade winners, 1997-98's Aly Wagner of San Jose (CA) Presentation and 1998-99's Christie Welsh of Massapequa (NY) won Hermann Awards. The 2002-03 winner, Heather O'Reilly of East Brunswick (NJ), leads an alumni contingent currently representing the United States in international competition.

Boys Basketball: Alonzo Mourning of Chesapeake (VA) Indian River, the 1987-88 winner, won his first NBA championship ring last June with the Miami Heat. Only two players, LeBron James of Akron (OH) St. Vincent-St. Mary (2001-02, 2002-03) and Greg Oden of Indianapolis (IN) Lawrence North (2004-05 and 2005-06), have won the Boys Basketball Player of the Year Award twice.

Girls Basketball: 1989-90 winner Lisa Leslie of Inglewood (CA) Morningside, a four-time All-American at USC, has dominated the WNBA throughout its 10-year history. Katie Smith (1991-92) of Logan (OH) has been nearly as dominant. Candace Parker of Naperville (IL) Central is the only two-time winner (2002-03 and 2003-04).

Baseball: Alex Rodriguez of Miami (FL) Westminster Christian, the 1993 winner, appears to be a surefire Hall of Famer. Justin Upton, the 2005 winner from Chesapeake (VA) Great Bridge was the first player selected in the 2005 Major League Baseball draft. The Minnesota Twins' amazing young catcher, Joe Mauer of St. Paul (MN) Cretin-Derham Hall, was the Gatorade National Football Player of the Year in 2000 before focusing strictly on baseball.

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Softball: The first winner, UCLA's Amanda Freed of Garden Grove (CA) Pacifica (1998), owns a world championship ring. Pitcher Cat Osterman (2001) of Houston (TX) Cypress Falls, is arguably the world's number one left-hander. The 2002 winner, pitcher Alicia Hollowell of Fairfield (CA), led Arizona to the 2006 NCAA championship.

Boys Track: Kerron Clement of LaPorte (TX), the 2003 winner, is the US's top 400-meter hurdler and the reigning national champion. Reston (VA) South Lake's Alan Webb (2001) was America's top miler in 2005 and, though limited by injuries, is working on longer distances too. Jacob Freeman, the 1999 winner from Rhode Island's Bishop Hendricken, was the 2004 NCAA hammer throw champion and remains one of the nation's top performers.

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Girls Track: Sprinter Allyson Felix, the 2003 winner from North Hills (CA) L. A. Baptist, was the Olympic 200-meter silver medalist in 2004 and the world champion in 2005. Joanna Hayes of Riverside (CA) North, the 1995 winner, shocked the track world by winning gold at the 2004 Olympics in the 100-meter hurdles. The 2002 winner, Sanya Richards of Ft. Lauderdale (FL) Aquinas, is the reigning two-time US champion at 400 meters and a 2004 Olympic 4 x 400 relay gold medalist (along with Monique Henderson, the 2000 Gatorade winner from San Diego Morse),

In 2003, Gatorade capped the program by creating a new level of achievement for national players of the year. Each July, the 10 individual sport winners (and their parents) are invited to Los Angeles for the selection of the Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year. An all-star panel of sports media experts selects one boy and one girl for the AOY award. The winners are introduced to friends, family, and the media at a gala luncheon preceding the annual ESPY Awards show telecast--which includes an on-screen announcement of the Athletes of the Year. For the record books, following are the previous Gatorade Athletes of the Year:

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* 2003: Allyson Felix and LeBron James.

* 2004: Candace Parker and Dwight Howard.

* 2005: Cynthia Barboza and Greg Paulus.

* 2006: Tina Charles and Greg Oden.

Those are just the National Players of the Year. Another 8,600+ student-athletes have been named Gatorade State Player of the Year, a tremendous achievement in its own right. Listing all of their names, from Shareef Abdur-Raheem to Shanna Zolman, with all sorts of intermediate stops, would fill its own special issue. Needless to say, they've all met the same stringent requirements--athletic performance, academic success, superb character--as the 176 National Players of the Year. Of course, it was those stringent requirements that brought Gatorade and Scholastic together in the first place!

By Bruce Weber, Publisher, Scholastic Coach & Athletic Director