CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – In its 30th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, the Gatorade Company has announced Donny Everett of Clarksville High School as its 2014-15 Gatorade Tennessee Baseball Player of the Year.

Everett is the first Gatorade Tennessee Baseball Player of the Year to be chosen from Clarksville 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 Everett as Tennessee’s best high school baseball player.

Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year, Everett joins an elite alumni association of past state award-winners in 12 sports, including Derek Jeter (1991-92, Kalamazoo HS, Mich.), Roy Halladay (1994-95, Arvada West HS, Colo.), David Price (2003-04, Blackman HS, Tenn.), Chipper Jones (1989-90, Bolles School, Fla.), Derek Lee (1992-93, El Camino HS, Calif.) and Jon Lester (2001-02, Bellarmine Prep, Wash.).

The 6-foot-3, 230-pound senior right-handed pitcher posted a 9-1 record with two saves, a 0.93 ERA and 124 strikeouts against just eight walks in 68 innings-pitched this past season, leading the Wildcats (30-11) to the Class AAA regional semifinals. Also a first baseman, Everett batted .412 with two home runs, 32 runs-scored and 34 RBI. A preseason First Team All-American as named by Louisville Slugger and Perfect Game USA, he worked 21 walks and belted 13 extrabase hits, recording a .500 on-base percentage and .579 slugging percentage in his final prep campaign.

Everett has maintained a 3.62 GPA in the classroom. In addition to donating his time as a youth baseball instructor, he has volunteered on behalf of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

“His athletic excellence speaks for itself in his statistics,” said Brian Welp, head coach of rival Henry County High. “But the impressive thing was that he always went about his business without showing up his opponents, and his work ethic could be seen at an early age as a developing freshman.”

Everett has signed a National Letter of Intent to play baseball on scholarship at Vanderbilt University this fall, but is projected as an early round selection in June’s Major League Baseball draft.