CHAPEL HILL— The North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) has named Holly Hill of Southwestern Randolph High School and Tyrone Westmoreland of South Iredell High School as winners of the 1993 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 Hill and Westmoreland were nominated by their coaches 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 students on their great achievements during their high school careers," said Charlie Adams, executive director of the NCHSAA. "Both Holly and Tyrone established 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."
Hill compiled some amazing statistics as a three-sport star in volleyball, basketball and softball at Southwestern Randolph. She was selected as the Most Valuable Player in each of the last two NCHSAA state 2-A vollleyball championship matches, as Southwestern earned the state championship both in 1991 and again in '92. She was the Central Tar Heel 2-A Conference Player of the Year in that sport and earned all-conference honors three consecutive years. A four-year starter, Holly was twice the Randolph County Player of the Year in volleyball.
In basketball, she was a key member of squads which won 98 games and lost only 15 during her career. Three times she was voted both the conference and the county basketball player of the year and earned all-Central Tar Heel honors all four years she played. Also a four-year starter in basketball, Hill scored 1,447 career points, second best in school history, and averaged 15.4 points per game this season while leading her team to a sectional championship.
She is currently competing in softball , where she had been a three-year starter and already has won all-league honors twice. She has a career batting average of over .600 and has led Southwestern in hitting each of the last two seasons.
Westmoreland was one of North Carolina's top prep football players, closing his career with 6,602 yards rushing, second best in state history. He ran for 2,136 yards as a junior and was nine yards short of the 2,000 mark this year. Westmoreland was the Foothills Conference Player of the Year in football in '92 and made the all-conference team four times.
A Shrine Bowl and East-West all-star game selection, Tyrone scored 92 touchdowns during his career and a whopping 560 points. He was named to the Associated Press all-state team and honored by Sports Illustrated with a Faces in the Crowd mention in February of this year.
He was also among the state's best in wrestling, never finishing below second in the state tournament in his career. He was twice named the Foothills Confernence Wrestler of the Year and compiled a brilliant career mark on the mat of 124 victories against only three losses– and all three losses came in the state finals. A four-time all-conference selection in this sport, Tyrone was the state champion at 160 pounds in 1992.
Westmoreland has also found a little time to compete in track, earning all-conference honors in 1991 and '92. He ran a leg on the 400-meter relay team that finished third in the 3- A state championship meet last spring.
Contact: Rick Strunk (919-962-2345)
