Rogers High Volleyball Standout Schmidt Named Gatorade POY
In its 40th year of honoring the nation’s most elite high school athletes, Gatorade has announced Anya Schmidt of Rogers High School is the 2024-25 Gatorade Minnesota Volleyball Player of the Year.
Schmidt is the first Gatorade Minnesota Volleyball Player of the Year to be chosen from Rogers High School.
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 Schmidt as Minnesota’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).
Rogers High School senior Anya Schmidt warms up for Royals volleyball practice earlier this season.
The 5-foot-11 senior setter combined for 413 kills and 371 assists this past season, averaging more than four of each per set and leading the Royals (28-4) to the Section 8-4A final. Schmidt posted a .510 kill percentage and a .362 hitting percentage at net, adding 167 digs, 145 service aces and 46 blocks on the year. Rated as the state’s No. 6 prospect in her class by PrepDig, she was named a PrepVolleyball All-Midwest Region selection as well as an AVCA Second Team All-American.
Also the state’s 2024 Ms. Baden winner, she will graduate as the state single-season record-holder for service aces with 197.
Schmidt is president of her school’s National Honor Society chapter and has coordinated multiple philanthropic initiatives in that role such as collecting books for children in Africa, a sock drive for CROSS Services and blanket drives for hospitalized kids.
A founding member of the school’s chapter of Letters of Love, through which students write letters to children in the hospital, she has also served as a Link Leader during her junior and senior years. In addition, she has donated her time locally coaching youth volleyball players and as a peer tutor.
“Rarely can you identify a single player who can control the outcome of a set or match in this sport, but Anya Schmidt is the reason that Rogers High School has made program history, winning back-to-back sectional finals and reaching the state tournament in three straight seasons (2021-23),” said Akamai (Tammy) Cornillez, St. Michael-Albertville High School
head coach. “She’s an all-around phenomenal athlete and volleyball player. There is no other single player in Minnesota with her level of impact.”
Schmidt has maintained a weighted 4.05 GPA in the classroom. She has signed a written letter of athletic aid to play volleyball at the University of St. Thomas this fall.
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.
Schmidt joins recent Gatorade Minnesota Volleyball Players of the Year Stella Swenson (2023-24, 2022-23, & 2021- 22, Wayzata High School) and Erin Lamb (2020-21, Stewartville High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.
As part of Gatorade’s commitment to breaking down barriers in sport, every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner. To date, the Gatorade Player of the Year program has provided more than $5.6 million in grants to winners across more than 2,000 organizations.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visit the Gatorade POY website, or follow them on social media on Instagram or Facebook.