SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Santa Clara volleyball commit Kathryn Decker received one of the highest honors a high school athlete can achieve when she was named Gatorade Oregon Volleyball Player of the Year this week. Decker, a 6-foot-4-inch outside hitter/right side, helped Portland's Jesuit High School to a 35-1 overall record, a Metro League championship and a trip to the Class 6A state quarterfinal round of the playoffs in 2016.

The award "recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field," per the official release. 

"This award really means a lot to me because it recognizes me as a whole person who gives back to the community, works hard in school and is also a good volleyball player," Decker said. "I've worked throughout my high school career to develop myself as a whole person, and to have something that recognizes all three of those things is a huge honor."

"I'm really proud of Kathryn and it's great to see her being recognized for this award," Bronco head coach Jon Wallace said. "She started on varsity all four years in the state of Oregon and proved herself at the high school level there. She is one of the elite players to come out of Oregon in some time."

In 2016, Decker hit .353 with 396 kills, 381 digs, 45 blocks and 36 aces in her senior campaign on the court while posting a 3.91 GPA in the classroom. Her service work includes volunteering with a local homelessness advocacy group, the YMCA of Greater Seattle as well as serving as a school ambassador.

Decker also helped build a schoolhouse as part of a mission trip to Nicaragua in 2015 following her sophomore year at Jesuit. Each Gatorade Player of the Year receives a $1,000 grant to donate to a youth sports organization. Drawing on her experience in Central America, Decker plans to donate the money toward sporting equipment for multiple communities in Nicaragua.

"We played a lot of sports with the kids — soccer, basketball, just playing catch — and they really enjoyed it," Decker said. "I saw firsthand how happy it made them to have something even as simple as a bouncy ball, so that's something I really want to do."

ABOUT THE GATORADE PLAYER OF THE YEAR PROGRAM

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.

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