Brewbaker Tech's Spicer Named Alabama Gatorade Athlete


CHICAGO (July 2, 2021) - In its 36th year of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Chanice Spicer of Brewbaker Tech as its 2020-21 Gatorade Alabama Girls Track & Field Player of the Year. Spicer is the first Gatorade Alabama Girls Track & Field Player of the Year to be chosen from Brewbaker Tech.
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 Spicer as Alabama's best high school girls track & field athlete. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Track & Field Player of the Year award to be announced in July, Spicer joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Lolo Jones (1997-98, Roosevelt High School, Iowa), Allyson Felix (2002-03, Los Angeles Baptist High School, Calif.), Robert Griffin III (2006-07, Copperas Cove High School, Texas), Grant Fisher (2013-14 & 2014-15, Grand Blanc High School, Mich.) and Candace Hill (2014-15, Rockdale County High School, Ga.).
The state's returning Gatorade Girls Track & Field Player of the Year, the 5-foot-4 senior swept the 100-, 200- and 400- meter dash at the Class 5A state meet this past season, leading the Rams to a second-place finish as a team. At the time of her selection, Spicer's winning 400 clocking of a personal-best 53.87 seconds ranked No. 17 nationally under all conditions among 2021 prep competitors. Her personal-best times in the 100 (11.48) and 200 (23.44) were the nation's No. 16 and No. 10 all-conditions clockings in 2021 and the 100 performance was the No. 1 wind-legal time in state history. She concluded her prep track career with 17 individual state titles for indoor and outdoor track.
An Alpha Kappa Alpha ASCEND Scholar, Spicer has volunteered as a mentor with Save Kids of Incarcerated Parents (SKIP) and on behalf of a food drive in association with the True Divine Baptist Church Backpack Ministry. She has also donated her time to the Samaritan's Purse Project as well as tutoring peers in math during the pandemic shelter-inplace in association with Successful Math GEMS. A RAM Ambassador, a HOSA Future Health Professional and a member of the Key Club, Spicer ushers at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham. She graduated with more than 200 hours of community service on her resume. "Chanice has pure God-given talent," said Derrick Evans, head coach at Brewbaker Tech. "As an athlete, she has a spirit of perseverance and an even stronger work ethic. It is her character that sets her apart from her peers and her determination that inspires those who know her on and off the track. Chanice has a bright future ahead of her."
Spicer has maintained a 4.22 GPA in the classroom. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to compete on an athletic scholarship at the University of Alabama this fall.
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.
Two-time winner Spicer joins recent Gatorade Alabama Girls Track & Field Players of the Year Nicole Payne (2018-19, Oak Mountain High School), Alonie Sutton (2017-18, Smiths Station High School), and Caitlyn Little (2016-17, Hoover High School), among the state's list of former award winners.