WESTLAKE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-ATHLETE NAMED GATORADE GEORGIA BOYS TRACK & FIELD PLAYER OF THE YEAR
PRESS RELEASE | CHICAGO (June 27, 2024) - In its 39th year of honoring the nation's most elite high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Sidi Njie of Westlake High School is the 2023-24 Gatorade Georgia Boys Track & Field Player of the Year. Njie is the third Gatorade Georgia Boys Track & Field Player of the Year to be chosen from Westlake High School.
The award, which celebrates the nation's top high school athletes for excellence on the field, in the classroom and in the community, distinguishes Njie as Georgia's best high school boys track & field player. From CEOs and coaches to star athletes, Gatorade Player of the Year winners showcase the power of sport, touting an all-star group of alumni that includes Alan Webb (2000-01, South Lakes High School, Va.), Kerron Clement (2002-03, Laporte High School, Texas) and Grant Fisher (2014-15 & 2013-14, Grand Blanc High School, Mich.).
The 6-foot-1, 155-pound junior sprinter won a national title in the 400-meter dash at the USATF U20 Championships, beating six collegians to break the tape 0.3 seconds ahead of his next-closest competitor. Njie also won the 200 at the Class 7A state meet, clocking a time of 20.80-the nation's No. 12 time in 2024. His second-place time of 45.37 seconds in the 400 at the state meet was a personal-best, which ranked No. 3 nationally among boys prep competitors this spring and No. 16 in prep history. He ran the second leg for Westlake's 4x400 and 4x100 relay quartets, which finished first and fifth, respectively.
Njie volunteers locally as part of multiple community service initiatives in association with his church. He has also donated his time serving others as a member of the Beta Club. "Njie's times in the sprints, including the all-time No. 16 clocking in the 400 and a national U20 title in that event, are too hard to ignore in Georgia," said Rich Gonzelez, editor of PrepCalTrack. "He won two individual events, shared in a relay title and scored in another relay at the state meet. Take those points away and the Lions finish 19th instead of fifth as a team."
Njie has maintained a 3.35 GPA in the classroom. He will begin his senior year of high school this fall.
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 Player of the Year Selection Committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the state winners in each sport.
Njie joins recent Gatorade Georgia Boys Track & Field Players of the Year Isaiah Taylor (2022-23, Southwest Dekalb High School), Will Sumner (2021-22, Woodstock High School), Malik Mixon (2020-21, Westlake High School) and Jaylen Slade (2019-20, Chapel Hill High School), among the state's list of former award winners.
As part of Gatorade's commitment to breaking down barriers in sport, every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner. To date, the Gatorade Player of the Year program has provided more than $4.9 million in grants to winners across more than 1,900 organizations.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visitplayeroftheyear.gatorade.com or follow us on social media on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY, Instagram at instagram.com/Gatorade and X(Twitter) at x.com/Gatorade.
