Top state basketball honor for Lake Forest's Vogrich

Posted March 23, 2009 11:00 pm

From Daily Herald News Services

In its third decade of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in partnership with ESPN RISE, today announced Matt Vogrich of Lake Forest High School as its 2008-09 Illinois Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

Vogrich is the first boys basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from Lake Forest High School.

The award recognizes outstanding athletic excellence as well as high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the court. Vogrich is now a finalist for the Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year award.

The senior shooting guard led the Scouts to a 27-3 record and the Class 4A sectional semifinals this season, averaging 21.9 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.3 steals per game. The 6-foot-4, 175-pound Vogrich shot 47 percent from the field, 77 percent from the free throw line and 32 percent from beyond the 3-point arc this winter.

Vogrich has maintained a 4.79 GPA on a 5.0 scale in the classroom. In addition to donating his time as a local youth basketball instructor, he has volunteered on behalf of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Public Action to Deliver Shelter and The ONE Campaign to fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease.

"The great thing about Matt Vogrich is that he's an unbelievable teammate," said Steve Pratt, co-founder of Full Package, Vogrich's Amateur Athletic Union club team. "He gets it. He's the kind of kid you want to play with. As a player, he's a combo guard. He always steps to the challenge. The more he's challenged, the better he plays. He can hit 10 3-pointers in a game, and he can take it right down the lane and dunk on your head."

Vogrich has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball at the University of Michigan this fall.

Vogrich joins recent Gatorade Illinois Boys Basketball Players of the Year Michael Dunigan (2007-08, Farragut Career Academy), Derrick Rose (2006-07, Simeon HS), and Jon Scheyer (2005-06, Glenbrook North HS) among the state's list of former award winners.