CHAPEL HILL —  Tevin Hester of Granville Central High School and Lindsay Simpson of Franklin High School, have been named winners of the 2012 Athlete of the Year awards by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA).

 

These are the top athletic awards given by the NCHSAA to honor the most outstanding male and female high school athletes in the state. They were presented at the Dean E, Smith Center on the University of North Carolina campus during the NCHSAA's Annual Meeting.

 

Both of the winners were selected by a special panel of media representatives from across the state. They were each presented with the Pat Best Memorial Trophy, named for the former Goldsboro High principal and president of the NCHSAA who died unexpectedly in 1988.

 

"On behalf of our Board of Directors and the entire membership of the NCHSAA, we congratulate these outstanding student-athletes on their tremendous achievements during their high school careers," said Davis Whitfield, commissioner of the NCHSAA. "Both have extremely impressive credentials which are in the same vein as previous winners of this award, and we certainly wish them well in their future pursuits." 

 

Hester played five different sports during his Granville Central career, including football, basketball, outdoor track, indoor track, and cross country. He played only three years of football due to an injury suffered in summer basketball but ran cross country during that season. The other sports he competed in for four years each, was captain of three different teams and earned all-conference honors seven times.

 

During football season, he ran for 19 touchdowns and 1,247 yards rushing, and followed that with 18.5 points per game in basketball. He is Granville Central's all-time leading scorer in basketball.  In outdoor track, he is already the two-time conference athlete of the year and was the state indoor champion in the 55 meters with a meet record of 6.39 seconds. He recorded the second-best time ever by a North Carolinian in the 2012 New Balance national meet in the 60 meters and has earned all-American recognition in both indoor and outdoor track.

 

Hester, who won a WRAL-TV Extra Effort Award earlier this year, will attend Clemson University on a track and field scholarship.

 

Simpson has had a remarkable high school career as a star in volleyball and basketball. In volleyball, she was a two-time Western North Carolina Athletic Conference Player of the Year, a four-year starter who averaged a remarkable 5.7 kills per game this season. She set school career records with 1,208 kills and 1,605 assists.

 

She has been one of the top scorers in the state in women's basketball, finishing with 2,693 career points as the second all-time leading scorer in western North Carolina and her school's career leader. 

 

She has been selected for the North Carolina Coaches Association East-West all-star basketball game and the Blue-White all-star game in western North Carolina on the basis of 27.6 points per game average this season to go with 3.5 rebounds 2.0 assist, and 2.0 steals.  As a junior, she averaged 30.1 points per game and in one game scored 27 points in a single quarter.

 

Simpson earned Associated Press all-state honors and was also the Western North Carolina Athletic Conference Player of the Year in basketball. 

 

 An outstanding student, she is a member of the National Honor Society and serves on the Student Council. She will continue her athletic and academic career at Western Carolina University next fall.