Demeioun Robinson of Quince Orchard High School Named 2020-21 Gatorade Maryland Football Player of the Year

Demeioun Robinson of Quince Orchard High School Named 2020-21 Gatorade Maryland Football Player of the Year

In its 36th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Demeioun Robinson of Quince Orchard High School as its 2020-21 Gatorade Maryland Football Player of the Year. Robinson is the first Gatorade Maryland Football Player of the Year to be chosen from Quince Orchard High School.

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 Robinson as Maryland’s best high school football player.

Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Football Player of the Year award to be announced in May, Robinson joins an elite group of past state football award-winners, including Emmitt Smith (1986-87, Escambia High School, Fla.), Matthew Stafford (2005-06, Highland Park High School, Texas) and Christian McCaffrey (2012-13 & 2013-14, Valor Christian High School, Colo.).

The 6-foot-4, 242-pound senior defensive end and linebacker recorded nine tackles, two tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks, leading the Cougars to a 2-0 record during this past pandemic-shortened season. A First Team All-State selection as a junior, Robinson was also a Washington Post All-Met First Team honoree, amassing 85 tackles, 14 sacks and three forced fumbles in 2019. He was selected a 2020-21 Under Armour All-American and is ranked as the nation’s No. 21 recruit in the Class of 2021 by 247Sports.
Robinson has served as a mentor for younger players and has volunteered his time assisting at a variety of athletic events at his school.

“You would have trouble finding a player more dominant than Demeioun Robinson in the Class of 2021,” said Tyler Bierly, head coach at Gaithersburg High. “He’s just a great player and has been an integral part of the success Quince Orchard has had the last few seasons.”

Robinson has maintained a B average in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to play football on scholarship at the University of Maryland 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.

Robinson joins recent Gatorade Maryland Football Players of the Year Blake Corum (2019-20, St. Frances Academy), Bryan Bresee (2018-19, Damascus High School), Anthony Lytton Jr. (2017-18, Dr. Henry A. Wise, Jr. High School), and Travis Levy (2016-17, Sherwood High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.

Through Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Robinson has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of their choosing. Robinson is also eligible to submit a 30-second video explaining why the organization they chose is deserving of one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants, which will be announced throughout the year. To date, Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants have totaled more than $2.7 million across 1,117 organizations.

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.