Nansemond-Suffolk Academy senior Macy Mears received the Student Athlete of the Year award from the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame & Museum on Sunday evening.

The organization, the Commonwealth’s official hall of fame for sports, gave the award to one boy and one girl apiece at the high school and middle school levels. The presentation took place during the Hall of Fame’s Ninth Annual Student Athlete Achievement Awards Banquet in Portsmouth.

Students were nominated by their coaches and administrators, then selected by a panel from the Hall of Fame. Mears was picked from more than 200 applicants across Virginia based on her academic and athletic achievements and her community involvement.

“I was surprised,” Mears said of the honor. The reason for her reaction stemmed from hearing the list of accomplishments for the other candidates. “They were phenomenal.”

It was a supporter who had similar thoughts concerning Mears’ achievements that put the award on her radar.

“Ms. (Betty Jean) Riddick, our athletic director, nominated me, and that’s how I first found out about it,” Mears said.

Some of the qualifications Riddick brought to the attention of the Hall of Fame pertained to Mears’ time as a softball player, basketball player and cross country runner.

In softball, she has been named First Team All-Conference every year since she was an eighth-grader. As a sophomore, she helped her team win the conference title. That year and in her junior year, she was named First Team All-State and served as the team’s co-captain.

In basketball, she has made the all-conference second team.

Among her academic qualifications, she carries an overall grade average of 94.31 and is a member of the National Honor Society.

She has received the Susan B. Anthony Award from the University of Rochester. According to the school’s website, the honor is given to someone demonstrating commitment to understanding and addressing difficult social issues, showing leadership and dedication to community action and with strong grades and rigorous courses taken in the humanities and social sciences.

Mears was nominated by an NSA representative and selected by The American Legion to participate in the Virginia Girls State Delegate program. Aiming to develop leadership and citizenship, the program includes a week-long camp in which students form and operate a mock state government.

Each year of high school, Mears has been awarded Nansemond-Suffolk Academy’s Founder’s Scholarship. It gives $2,000 to students with an established record of academic achievement and school leadership, with evidence of continued success in both regards.

Her role as president of the Haitian Awareness Club at NSA is one instance of school leadership in extra-curricular activities. The club partnered with an orphanage in Haiti and Mears ultimately made a trip to Haiti to help out.

Mears has also worked in the local community, helping with sheltering and serving the homeless.

Her parents were on hand for Sunday’s banquet, and her mother, Cindy Mears, said she was proud and pleased to see her daughter be singled out, since she is not the kind of girl to bring attention to herself.

“I think the thing about Macy is, she’s a humble, humble kid,” Cindy Mears said. “She’s very much a team player in athletics and, pretty much, in life.”

Mears’ father, Jim Mears, said the award was well-deserved in his opinion.

“We’re very proud of Macy and her accomplishments,” he said. “She’s had a great career at NSA from eighth grade on.”

Mears looks forward to being able to add this honor to her remaining college applications. “I hope that it will help,” she said.

Mears and the other three winners will be honored with an exhibit at the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame & Museum. It will be part of the museum’s rotating exhibit “Virginians in the Spotlight” and will be on display during January and February 2014.