Jared Mang
CHICAGO — In its 30th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports, today announced Jared Mang of Los Alamos High School as its 2014-15 Gatorade New Mexico Baseball Player of the Year.
Mang is the first Gatorade New Mexico Baseball Player of the Year to be chosen from Los Alamos 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 Mang as New Mexico’s best high school baseball player.
Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year, Mang 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 Jon Lester (2001-02, Bellarmine Prep, Wash.).
The 5-foot-10, 200-pound senior shortstop and right-handed pitcher batted .559 with five home runs, 33 runs scored a 1.029 slugging percentage, leading the Hilltoppers (23-7) to the Class 5A semifinals this past season. The state’s reigning Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year, Mang posted a 7-1 record on the mound with a 0.80 ERA and 66 strikeouts in 52.1 innings pitched.
Mang has maintained a 3.87 GPA in the classroom. A member of the National Honor Society, he has volunteered locally on behalf of a homeless shelter and as a youth baseball coach.
“Jared Mang is a tremendous talent,” said Sean Trotter, head coach at Farmington High. “He does it all for Los Alamos and competes his tail off. We played a pretty good schedule and I can comfortably say that he probably contributed the most to his club’s success.”
Mang has signed a National Letter of Intent to play baseball on scholarship at the University of New Mexico 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 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.
Two-time winner Mang joins Gatorade New Mexico Baseball Players of the Year Andre Vigil (2012-13, Volcano Vista High School), Shilo McCall (2011-12, Piedra Vista High School), Blake Swihart (2010–11, Cleveland High School), Sam Wilson (2009-10, Eldorado), Max Walla (2008–09, Albuquerque Academy), Wade Hinkle (2007-08, Del Norte), and Richard Bohlken (2006-07, La Cueva) among the state’s list of former award winners.
For more on the Gatorade Player of the Year program, including nomination information, a complete list of past winners and the announcement of the Gatorade National Player of the Year, visit www.gatorade.com/poy.
