Congratulations to Hicksville’s Tim Parker, a senior varsity soccer team captain and MVP, on a very successful soccer season.
On Feb. 23, Tim’s 18th birthday, the Gatorade Company, in its 26th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, in collaboration with ESPN RISE, announced Timothy Parker of Hicksville High School as its 2010-11 Gatorade New York Boys Soccer Player of the Year. Parker is the first Gatorade New York Boys Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Hicksville 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 Parker as New York’s best high school boy’s soccer player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Soccer Player of the Year award to be announced in May, Parker joins an elite alumni association of past state award-winners in 12 sports, including Alexi Lalas, Derek Jeter, Kevin Garnett, Tony Meola and Mark Sanchez.
The 5-foot-10-inch senior forward/defender recorded 25 goals and eight assists this past season, leading the Comets (16-1) to the Nassau County semifinals. An All-American selection by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, Parker is on the roster of the U.S. Soccer Federation Under-18 Men’s National Team. He was also named New York State Player of the Year, Second Team ESPN RISE All-American, Newsday’s Long Island Player of the Year and the recipient of the Jim Stein Award, which goes to the top player in Nassau County. He is a member of the National Honor Society and has maintained an A-minus average in the classroom. As a member of Athletes Helping Athletes, he has volunteered locally on behalf of the Special Olympics, youth soccer programs and an area soup kitchen.
“He’s got all the athleticism you could ask for, and on top of that he reads the game very well,” said Keith Stanley, head coach of rival Massapequa High. “He’s hard to mark, and when he needs to, he can take over a game.”
Parker has signed a National Letter of Intent to play soccer on scholarship at St. John’s University. His friends and family are very proud of him and all his accomplishments, they wish him the best of luck and look forward to watching his college career.
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 and field and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport. The selection process is administered by ESPN RISE and the Gatorade high school sports leadership team, 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.
