In its 29th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports, announced Courtney Eckenrode of The Woodlands High School volleyball team as its 2013-14 Gatorade Texas Volleyball Player of the Year. Eckenrode is the first Gatorade Texas Volleyball Player of the year to be chosen from The Woodlands High School.

The award, which recognized not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement of exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Eckenrode as Texas’s best high school volleyball player. The 5-foot-9 senior led the Highlanders to a 45-0 record, the Class 5A state title and a No. 2 national ranking by PrepVolleyball.com this past season. A 2013-14 Under Armour Second Team All-American, she was MVP of the Class 5A state tournament, a First Team All-State selection and a member of the LoneStarVolleyball.com All-Texas First Team.

Eckenrode has signed a National Letter of Intent to play volleyball on an athletic scholarship at San Diego State University beginning in the fall of 2014. click here for complete story