Former Abbeville native named Gatorade Louisiana baseball Player of the Year

CHICAGO— In its 29th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports, today announced Chase Vallot of St. Thomas More High School as its 2013-14 Gatorade Louisiana Baseball Player of the Year.
Vallot is a former resident of Abbeville, and attended Mount Carmel in Abbeville through the eight grade.
Vallot is the first Gatorade Louisiana Baseball Player of the Year to be chosen from St. Thomas More 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 Vallot as Louisiana’s best high school baseball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year, Vallot 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 John Lester (2001-02, Bellarmine Prep, Wash.).
The 6-foot, 205-pound senior catcher led the Cougars (31-5) to the Class 4A state championship this past season. Vallot batted .545 with 13 home runs, 62 RBI and 45 runs scored. A 2013 Perfect Game All-American and a 2013 Under Armour All-American, he also produced a .667 on-base percentage and a 1.107 slugging percentage as 29 of his 54 hits went for extra-base hits.
Vallot has maintained a 3.44 GPA in the classroom.
A devoted member of his church parish community, he has volunteered locally as part of multiple spiritual retreats with his church youth group and as a baseball camp counselor.
“Chase Vallot is already a very good player with the potential to be great,” said Kevin Vital, head coach at Northside High. “He also knows and understands the work that must be put in to become great. That’s what makes the difference between those who are average and those who are great in baseball as well as life.”
Vallot has signed with Mississippi State University but is projected as an early round selection in next month’s Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.
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 & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport.
The selection process is administered by the Gatorade high school sports leadership team in partnership with USA TODAY High School Sports, which work with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.
Vallot joins recent Gatorade Louisiana Baseball Players of the Year Jared Poche (2012-13, Lutcher High School), Gavin Cecchini (2011-12 & 2010 – 11, Barbe High School), Bronson Gillam (2009-10, Evangel Christian Academy), Zachary Von Rosenberg (2008–09, Zachary), Austin Nola (2007-08, Catholic), and Carmen Angelini (2006-2007, Barbe) among the state’s list of former award winners.