CHICAGO (May 30, 2019) — In its 34th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company today announced Carlie Scupin of Tucson Magnet School as its 2018-19 Gatorade Arizona Softball Player of the Year. Scupin is the first Gatorade Arizona Softball Player of the Year to be chosen from Tucson Magnet 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 Scupin as Arizona’s best high school softball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year award to be announced in June, Scupin joins an elite alumni association of past state softball award-winners, including Catherine Osterman (2000-01, Cy Spring High School, Texas), Kelsey Stewart (2009-10, Arkansas City High School, Kan.), Carley Hoover (2012-13 D.W. Daniel High School, S.C.), Jenna Lilley (2012-13, Hoover High School, Ohio), Morgan Zerkle (2012-13 Cabell Midland High School, W. Va.), and Rachel Garcia (2014-15, Highland High School, Calif.).

The 6-foot junior first baseman and left-handed pitcher batted .683 with 17 home runs and 41 RBI this past season, leading the Badgers (18-9) to the Conference 6A state semifinals. A First-Team All-State selection, Scupin clubbed 11 doubles and slugged 1.730, drawing 20 walks to record a .783 on-base percentage and a 1.730 slugging percentage. As a relief pitcher, the two-time Southern Region Player of the Year earned two saves and struck out 17 batters in 11.2 innings in the circle.

Scupin has volunteered locally at a memory care facility for Alzheimer’s patients and as a youth softball coach. “Carlie’s numbers throughout the year were just outstanding,” said Jana Rae Slayton, head coach of Chandler High. “To play the teams they played and to hit like she did throughout the season is incredible.”

Scupin has maintained a weighted 3.64 GPA in the classroom. She has made a verbal commitment to play softball on scholarship at the University of Arizona beginning in the fall of 2020.

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.

Scupin joins recent Gatorade Arizona Softball Players of the Year Marissa Schuld (2017-18 & 2016-17, Pinnacle High School), Hayley Busby (2015-16, Sandra Day O'Connor High School), Arissa Paulson (2014-15, Payson High School) and Bre Macha (2013-14, Red Mountain High School) among the state’s list of former award winners.

As a part of Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Scupin 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.