Woodbridge senior named “Gatorade Player of the Year”
Altia Anderson is a senior over at Woodbridge high school and she is quite the scholar athlete. Not only does she take 3 AP courses, but she also plays field hockey, basketball, runs track, and she plays soccer. And now she can add “Gatorade Player of the Year” for girls basketball to her impressive resume.
Anderson, who stands at 6’2 is built like she’d be good at basketball, and she is. And now her skill is being recognized. Early Thursday morning she got the surprise that any athlete could only dream of. After being pulled from calculus class, she was brought into the sports office and shown a video from Gatorade. She was named Delaware’s Gatorade Player of the Year.
47 ABC spoke with Anderson and she says, “I was shocked they showed me the video and I was like oh this is really nice and they were like, and I was like, wait is that for me? And they were like yeah and I was like oh my god.”
Playing since she was just 8 years old, Anderson says she owes her successes to more than just one person. She tells 47 ABC, “My dad, my mom, and my brother and my sister so we all played basketball. I thank god every day for giving me the attributes to play and be good at it and I then have to give in on to my dad and my coaches and everybody like in general it’s not just one person.”
Gatorade has been honoring and recognizing the country’s most outstanding athletes since 1985 for their athletic achievement, academic excellence, and exemplary character. Anderson’s coach Emilio Perry says, this achievement comes as no surprise to him.
Perry tells 47 ABC, “It just solidified what I knew all along about her she’s just an epitome of what a student athlete is and academically on the court any sport that she participates in she’s that type of kid where you’re going to get full out effort.”
Anderson is headed to Marquette University this fall where she will continue to play. As far as her advice for other aspiring girls? Anderson says, “You may not feel like you want it right then and there, you want it just keep pushing stay humble stay kind.”
Altia tells 47 ABC she is beyond excited to go to Marquette this fall. She says when touring the campus, she felt as if she was home, right back in Delaware. She says she’s excited to work with her new teammates and coaches because she knows they’ll push her harder than she’s ever been pushed before.
