In its 37th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Malcolm Moore of C.K. McClatchy High School is the 2021-22 Gatorade California Baseball Player of the Year. Moore is the first Gatorade California Baseball Player of the Year to be chosen from C.K. McClatchy 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 Moore as California’s best high school baseball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year award to be announced in June, Moore joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Derek Jeter (1991-92, Kalamazoo High School, Mich.), Jon Lester (2001-02, Bellarmine Preparatory School, Wash.), David Price (2003-04, Blackman High School, Tenn.), Clayton Kershaw (2005-06, Highland Park High School, Texas), Rick Porcello (2006-07, Seaton Hall Preparatory School, N.J.) and Kris Bryant (2009-10, Bonanza High School, Nev.). At the time of his selection, the 6-foot-3, 195-pound senior catcher had batted .511 with 13 home runs, 51 RBI and 47 runs scored through 32 games, leading the Lions (29-4) to a berth in the semifinals of the Division II CIF NorCal Regional Baseball Championships. The state’s returning Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year and the No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2022 as ranked by Perfect Game, Moore also owned a .650 OBP entering the regional round of the postseason and struck out just once every 20.5 plate appearances. Moore has volunteered locally on behalf of multiple charitable fundraisers in association with his school and has donated his time as a youth baseball coach. “While we all marvel at Malcolm Moore’s amazing power as a hitter, he’s also an elite catcher,” said McClatchy High School head coach Mike de Necochea. “He is an excellent receiver with a very strong and accurate arm. He’s our team captain and a great teammate who helps others around him to get better.” Moore has maintained a 4.19 GPA in the classroom and is ranked first in his graduating class of 504 students. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to play baseball on scholarship at Stanford University this fall, but is projected as an early round selection in July’s Major League Baseball draft. 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. Two-time winner Moore joins recent Gatorade California Baseball Players of the Year Tyler Soderstrom (2019-20, Turlock High School), Josh Hahn (2018-19, Huntington Beach High School), and Cole Winn (2017-18, Orange Lutheran High School), among the state’s list of former award winners. Gatorade has a long-standing history of serving athlete communities and understands how sports instill valuable lifelong skills on and off the field. Through Gatorade’s “Play it Forward” platform, Moore has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national organization of their choosing that helps young athletes realize the benefits of playing sports. Moore is also eligible to submit a short video explaining why the organization they chose is deserving of one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants, which will be announced throughout the year. To date, Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants have totaled more than $3.5 million across more than 1,300 organizations. 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 studentathletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com or follow us on social media on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY, Instagram at instagram.com/Gatorade and Twitter at twitter.com/Gatorade.