CHAPEL HILL— The North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) has named Aedrin Murray of Chatham Central High School and Na (pronounced nay) Brown of Reidsville High School as winners of the 1995 NCHSAA Athlete of the Year awards.
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 Smith Center on the University of North Carolina campus during the NCHSAA's Annual Meeting.
Both Murray and Brown were nominated and 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.
"We congratulate these fine student-athletes on their great achievements during their high school careers," said Charlie Adams, executive director of the NCHSAA. "Both Aedrin and Na have some impressive credentials which compare very favorably with some of the previous outstanding winners of this award. We certainly wish them the best in the future."
Brown, who has signed a football grant-in-aid with the University of North Carolina, compiled an outstanding record in three different sports– football, basketball and baseball. He finished his prep career as the second all-time leading receiver in state history in terms of catches with 195, and is third in the state's all-time reception yardage career list with 3,300. He was the Triad 3-A Conference Player of the Year in that sport, earning Associated Press all-state honors as well as making the Shrine Bowl and East-West all-star team squads.
During the basketball season, Brown was a key performer for coach Ron Parsons' high-ranked Rams, starting for the 1994 Reidsville team that won the NCHSAA state 3- A championship and earning all-Triad honors in that sport for the 1994-95 campaign. And in baseball, Brown is a four-year varsity starter as a shortstop and leadoff hitter, having earned all-league designation in that sport in each of his three previous seasons.
Brown was named by one magazine as one of the top 70 infielders in the country and is on track to break both the school and Rockingham County stolen base record. He has been the team leader in almost every offensive category and batted over .400 every year, including a sizzling .453 mark a year ago. In addition, Brown carries a 3.4 grade point average.
Murray is also an outstanding student, serving as student body president and sporting a GPA of better than 3.0. She has been involved in an amazing five sports– cross country, tennis, basketball, softball and track– but has been amazingly proficient on all five.
Murray has already earned all-conference honors in four sports as a sophomore and as a junior and is on track to do that again. In cross country, she qualified for the NCHSAA 1-A/2-A state championship meet three different times, finishing 33rd out of 120 runners in the '93 meet. She qualified for the state individual tennis championships this fall, making the draw of 16 and has also led her softball team into the state playoffs.
In basketball, the Chatham Central star finished her career with 1,766 points, her school's all-time scoring leader as well as the all-time county scoring leader, and helped her team get to the Western Regional 1-A championship game. A conference Player of the Year during her career in two different sports, basketball and cross country, she has also qualified for the state track championships in each of the previous two springs and last year was sixth in the state in the 800 meters and ran a leg on Chatham Central relay teams in the state meet.
Contact: Rick Strunk (919-962-2345)
