CHICAGO (June 14, 2024) — In its 39th year of honoring the nation’s most elite high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Chris Asbridge of River Ridge High School is the 2023-24 Gatorade Georgia Boys Soccer Player of the Year. Asbridge is the first Gatorade Georgia Boys Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from River Ridge 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 Asbridge as Georgia’s best high school boys soccer 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 Lyle Yorks (1987-88, E.O. Smith High School, Conn.), Alecko Eskandarian (1999-00, Bergen Catholic High School, N.J.) and Ben Bender (2019-20, Calvert Hall College High School, Md.).
The 5-foot-10, 165-pound junior midfielder and forward led the Knights to a 21-1 record and the Class 6A state championship this past season. Asbridge scored 13 goals and passed for nine assists, serving as the key link between the River Ridge offense and defense. The Region 6-AAAAAA Player of the Year, he concluded his junior year with 25 goals and 13 assists in his prep soccer career.
A member of the Student Athlete Leadership team at River Ridge, Asbridge has volunteered locally as part of an elementary school literacy program and as a youth soccer coach. He has also donated his time to multiple community service initiatives through his church. “Chris was a big reason why River Ridge was so good,” said Jesey Murdock, head coach of Creekview High School. “He was their creative playmaker and made their team work as effectively as it did.”
Asbridge has maintained an A-minus average 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.
Asbridge joins recent Gatorade Georgia Boys Soccer Players of the Year Remi Okunlola (2022-23, Brookwood High School), Quin DeLaMater (2021-22, Hillgrove High School), Kadeem Agard (2020-21, South Gwinnett High School) and Vedad Kovac (2019-20, Lassiter 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, visit playeroftheyear.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.
