Flint Hill senior Krissy O'Malley has been named 2018-19 Gatorade Virginia Volleyball Player of the Year.
In its 34th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company announced that Flint Hill senior Krissy O'Malley has been named its 2018-19 Gatorade Virginia Volleyball Player of the Year. O'Malley is the third Gatorade Virginia Volleyball Player of the Year to be chosen from Flint Hill.
The award, which recognizes outstanding athletic excellence, high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes O'Malley as Virginia’s best high school volleyball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Volleyball Player of the Year award to be announced in January, O'Malley joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including USA Volleyball players Kayla Banwarth (2006-07, Wahlert High School, Iowa), Alisha Glass (2005-06, Leland Public High School, Mich.), Jordan Larson (2004-05, Logan View High School, Neb.) and Foluke Akinradewo (2004-05, St. Thomas High School Fla.).
The 5-foot-9 senior setter led Huskies to a 30-1 record and the Virginia Independent School Athletic Association Division I state championship this past season. O’Malley amassed 879 assists to go with 188 digs, 67 service aces, 47 kills and 22 blocks. A four-year VISAA All-State selection and a 2018 Washington Post First Team All-Met honoree, she concluded her prep volleyball career with 3,245 assists.
O’Malley has participated in a service-mission trip to the Dominican Republic, and has volunteered locally as a Flint Hill student ambassador as well as on behalf of So Others Might Eat. “Krissy was the glue of the team,” said Liz Hall, head coach of the Maret School. “She always put the ball where it needed to be. She has great hands and a terrific serve. Flint Hill was one of the most talented teams I have seen in a while and Krissy truly was the leader.”
O’Malley has maintained a 3.10 GPA in the classroom. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to play volleyball on scholarship at Liberty University 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 works with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.
O'Malley joins recent Gatorade Virginia Volleyball Players of the Year Elena Shklyar (2017-18, Langley High School), Abby Bottomley (2016-17, Princess Anne High School), Holly Carlton (2015-16, Potomac Falls High School), Ally Ford (2014-15, Flint Hill School), and Alex Andrejev (2013-14, Langley High School) among the state’s list of former award winners.
As a part of Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” O'Malley has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of her choosing. She is also eligible to submit an essay to win one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants for the organization of choice, which will be announced throughout the year.
Since the program’s inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of professional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming coaches, business owners and educators.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visit www.Gatorade.com/POY, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Gatorade.