Baidy Ba Named Gatorade Maryland Player of the Year
7/9/2021 4:14:00 PM | Cross Country, Men's Track & Field
CHICAGO — Kent State signee Baidy Ba has been selected as the 2020-21 Gatorade Maryland Boys Track & Field Player of the Year. Ba, who began his running career as a sophomore, will join the Golden Flashes' cross country and track and field teams in the fall.
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 Ba as Maryland's best high school boys track & field athlete.
Ba led Oakland Mills High School to the Class 3A state championship in June, winning the 800-meter run and 3200-meter run while anchoring the 4x400 relay team to a runner-up finish. His time of 9:11.32 in the 3200m was a new 3A meet record, besting the previous mark by nearly two seconds. Prior to the state meet, Ba earned three golds at both the regional and county competitions. He was named Howard County's Runner of the Year after winning the county cross country championship in April.
In the community, Ba volunteered at a local soup kitchen and assisted with a community clean-up initiative.
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.
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 student-athletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow on Twitter at twitter.com/Gatorade.
![Four Kent State track and field athletes pose together on the awards podium wearing light blue Under Armour uniforms and gold MAC Championship medals. Left to right: Chaz Sakala (bib 1196), Sean [last name partially visible] (bib 1157, holding a relay baton), Ryan Gross (bib 1167), and Jacob Stanley (bib 1192). The group smiles for the camera following their relay event at the MAC Outdoor Championships.](https://images.sidearmdev.com/resize?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdxbhsrqyrr690.cloudfront.net%2Fsidearm.nextgen.sites%2Fkentstatesports.com%2Fimages%2F2026%2F5%2F21%2FIMG_2657.jpg&height=340&type=webp)
