RIO RANCHO’S NOAH BREWER IS NAMED GATORADE NEW MEXICO BASEBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR
CHICAGO (May 21, 2020) — In its 35th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company today announced Noah Brewer of Rio Rancho High School as its 2019-20 Gatorade New Mexico Baseball Player of the Year. Brewer is the first Gatorade New Mexico Baseball Player of the Year to be chosen from Rio Rancho 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 Brewer as New Mexico’s best high school baseball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Baseball Baseball Player of the Year award to be announced in May, Brewer joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Derek Jeter (1991-92, Kalamazoo High School, Mich.), Jon Lester (2001-02, Bellarmine Preparatory School, Wash.), David Price (2003-04, Blackman High School, Tenn.), Clayton Kershaw (2005-06, Highland Park High School, Texas), Rick Porcello (2006-2007, Seaton Hall Preparatory School, N.J.) and Kris Bryant (2009-10, Bonanza High School, Nev.).
The 6-foot-3, 210-pound senior corner infielder graduates with a .465 career batting average along with an OPS of 1.275. Rated as the nation’s No. 180 third baseman in the Class of 2020 by Perfect Game and No. 1 in the state at his position, he entered the 2020 campaign as a Perfect Game 2020 West Region Preseason All-American Honorable Mention selection. In May, Brewer was named Rio Rancho High’s Male Athlete of the Year. In his final high school season last spring, he hit .550 to lead the state in batting average.
“I would like to thank all the coaches up at Rio Rancho, especially Coach Murphy for giving me an opportunity early in my career, as well as Lauro Felix and Al Foster at ABA,” said Brewer. “And lastly, my parents for giving me everything they had and more! It’s a great honor to receive this award and I couldn’t have done it without them!”
Brewer has volunteered to work at more than 25 baseball camps serving the needy and youth players in New Mexico and Texas, including the Grinders for Grace, ABA and El Paso charity events. Also a volunteer Little League instructor, he has donated his time reading to local elementary school children as part of a literacy-outreach program. “Noah is the best on-and-off-the-field student-athlete I’ve coached in my 35 years on the job,” said Ron Murphy, head coach at Rio Rancho. “His production as a player is great, but he has always put his team first and he’s a true leader. He’s a mentor to young athletes in our program and throughout our community, he’s a leader amongst the student body and he’s never once said he was unavailable for anything to help our program.”
Brewer has maintained a 3.94 weighted GPA in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to play Division I baseball on scholarship at the University of Incarnate Word (San Antonio, Texas).
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 and 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.
Brewer joins recent Gatorade New Mexico Baseball Players of the Year Chase Silseth (2017-18, Piedra Vista High School), Trevor Rogers (2016-17, Carlsbad High School), Nathaniel Garley (2015-16, Eldorado High School), and Jared Mang (2014-15, Los Alamos High School) among the state’s list of former award winners.
*release courtesy Gatorade
