Future Yellow Jacket Named Gatorade Player of the Year

THE FLATS – After concluding her successful volleyball career at Alpharetta High School, newly signed Yellow Jacket Abigail Li has earned the honor of 2024-25 Gatorade Georgia Volleyball Player of the Year. Li is the first Gatorade Georgia Volleyball Player of the Year to be chosen from Alpharetta High School.

The 6-foot-1 senior setter led the undefeated Raiders (36-0) to the Class 6A state championship and a No. 6 national ranking in the MaxPreps Top 100 this past season. Li accumulated 937 assists, averaging 10 per set, along with 195 digs, 80 kills, 53 aces and 46 blocks. She finished her senior season the 6A-Region 7 Player of the Year and earned 6A All-State honors.

Li has volunteered locally for the New Prospects Elementary School Mentoring Program, an organization she co-founded, which works with elementary school students who need extra help. In addition, she’s served as a coach with the Junior Alpharetta Raiders middle school volleyball program. “Li has this intimidating factor about her game, and she’s either going to put a ball down your throat, serve a huge ball at you so you shank it or make you guess where she’s setting the ball,” said Allatoona High School head coach Joseph Soley. “She has a very high IQ on the court and controls the offense at a high-level pace.”

Gatorade Player of the Year is the top honor in high school sports, celebrating the nation’s best high school athletes for their success on the court, in the classroom and in the community. The award distinguishes Li as Georgia’s best high school volleyball player, and she joins an impressive group of alumni that spans CEOs, coaches and star athletes such as April Ross (1999-00, Newport Harbor High School, Ca.), Kerri Walsh Jennings (1995-96, Archbishop Mitty High School, Ca.) and Ayden Ames (2023-24, Prosper High School, Texas).

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states across 12 different high school sports – 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.

Full Steam Ahead

Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.

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