FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GatoradePOYQuestions@Fleishman.com
LONG BEACH HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-ATHLETE NAMED
GATORADE MISSISSIPPI GIRLS TRACK & FIELD PLAYER OF THE YEAR
CHICAGO (June 20, 2019) - In its 34th year of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company today
announced Brooklyn Biancamano of Long Beach High School as its 2018-19 Gatorade Mississippi Girls Track & Field Athlete
of the Year. Biancamano is the first Gatorade Mississippi Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year to be chosen from Long Beach High
School.
The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and
exemplary character demonstrated on and off the track, distinguishes Biancamano as Mississippi's best high school girls track &
field athlete. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year award to be announced in
June, Biancamano joins an elite alumni association of state track & field award-winners, including Lolo Jones (1997-98, Roosevelt
High School, Iowa), Allyson Felix (2002-03, Los Angeles Baptist High School, Calif.), Robert Griffin III (2006-07, Copperas Cove High
School, Texas), Grant Fisher (2013-14 & 2014-15, Grand Blanc High School, Mich.) and Candace Hill (2014-15, Rockdale County
High School, Ga.).
The state's Gatorade Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year last fall, the 5-foot-3 freshman swept the 800-, 1600- and 3200-meter
events at the 5A state meet, leading the Bearcats to the team title. Without Biacamano's triple-gold and her role on the first-place
4x400-meter relay quartet, Long Beach would have finished 6th. At the time of her selection, her personal-best clocking of 4:57.34 in
the mile to capture gold at the Mobile Meet of Champions ranked No. 85 nationally among prep competitors in the event in 2019. An
MHSAA All-State selection this spring and the 2019 Clarion Ledger Awards Athlete of the Year for girls track, Biancamano is
undefeated in the 1600 to this point in her prep career and enters her sophomore year with 54 wins in the 64 races she's started.
Conversant in American Sign Language (ASL), Biancamano is a member of the Long Beach Mayor's Youth Council and her school's
Junior Civitan club, and she has volunteered as a mentor with the Heritage Christian Academy (Picayune) Cross Country Camp. She
has also served on behalf of an eight-week baseball program for physically and intellectually challenged youth, in addition to donating
her time to coastal clean-up efforts and the Quarles Elementary School Field Day. "Brooklyn ran the only sub-18 5K among Mississippi
girls last fall, then followed up by sweeping the 800 through 3200 at this spring's track & field state championships, also giving the
Bearcats' 4x400 relay foursome a lead they never relinquished," said Erik Boal, editor for DyeStat. "Only a freshman and already an
eight-time Class 5A individual track champion as well as the class record-holder in the 800 and 1600, her future looks bright."
Biancamano has maintained a weighted 5.34 GPA on a 4.0 scale in the classroom. She will begin her sophomore 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 that
sanction high school 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. From the 12 national winners, one
male and one female athlete are each named Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year. In all, 607 athletes are honored each year.
Biancamano joins recent Gatorade Mississippi Girls Track & Field Athletes of the Year Asia Poe (2017-18, Madison Central High
School), Demi Washington (2016-17, 2015-16 & 2014-15, Clinton High School), and Demi Washington (2013-14, Clinton High School)
among the state's list of former award winners.
As a part of Gatorade's cause marketing platform "Play it Forward," Biancamano also has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a
local or national youth sports organization of her choosing. She is also eligible to submit an essay to win one of twelve $10,000
spotlight grants for the organization of choice, which will be announced throughout the year.
Since the program's inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of professional and college
championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming coaches, business owners and educators.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visit
www.Gatorade.com/POY, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Gatorade
