Millbrook's Keith Marshall named Gatorade football player of the year

 
CHICAGO (December 1, 2011) — In its 27th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes,, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with ESPNHS, today announced Keith Marshall of Millbrook High School as its 2011-12 Gatorade North Carolina Football Player of the Year.  Marshall is the first Gatorade North Carolina Football Player of the Year to be chosen from Millbrook 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 field, distinguishes Marshall as North Carolina’s best high school football player.  Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Football Player of the Year award announced in December, Marshall joins an elite alumni association of past state award-winners in 12 sports, including Mark Sanchez (2004-05, Mission Viejo HS, Calif.), Wes Welker (1999-00, Heritage Hall HS, Okla.), Terrell Suggs (1999-00, Hamilton HS, Ariz.), Anquan Boldin (1998-99, Pahokee HS, Fla.) and Jerome Bettis (1989-90, Mackenzie HS, Mich.).
 
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound senior running back rushed for 1,891 yards and 25 touchdowns on 258 carries this season, leading the Wildcats (6-6) to a berth in the Class 4A postseason. The Preseason Player of the Year as named by NCPreps.com, Marshall ran for 1,550 yards and 17 touchdowns as a junior in 2010. A 2012 Under Armour All-America Game selection, he recorded 1,166 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground as a sophomore.
 
Also a track standout, Marshall has maintained a 4.29 weighted GPA in the classroom. In addition to donating his time as a youth football instructor, he has volunteered at a local homeless shelter and on behalf of Habitat for Humanity.
 
“Keith Marshall has tremendous speed,” said Tony Lewis, head coach of rival Sanderson High. “Once he is to the second level, he will outrun most tackling angles. I think he has good vision and finds the crease very well. He has the ability to make a play happen on his own due to raw speed. He is talented and I have always felt like he handled himself on the football field in a very positive way.”
 
Marshall remains undecided upon a collegiate destination.
 
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. The selection process is administered by ESPNHS and the Gatorade high school sports leadership team, which work with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.
 
Marshall joins recent Gatorade North Carolina Football Players of the Year Stephone Anthony (2010-11, Anson High School) Christian LeMay (2009-10, Butler), Xavier Nixon (2008-09, Jack Britt High School) and Braden Hanson (2007-08, Charlotte Latin School) among the state’s list of former award winners.

--Gatorade media release