Ocean View’s Micayla Shook, a three-sport star with a 4.8 GPA, earns prestigious national award

Ocean View High senior Micayla Shook is not one to crave individual attention, so there was something funny about having a whole ceremony dedicated to her accomplishments.

“It’s a pretty big deal out here today, Micayla,” Ocean View Principal Courtney Robinson said with a smile as she scanned the large crowd gathered Thursday on the school campus. “You might be a little important.”

In this case, the attention was certainly justified.

Shook, a three-sport star and team captain in cross-country, track and field and girls’ soccer, was the MaxPreps National Female Athlete of the Month for September. She was honored in a lunchtime ceremony at Ocean View.

Shook was formally presented the award by Staff Sgt. Elizabeth Pineda of the United States Marine Corps, which sponsored the award. Also on hand to present the award were U.S. track and field standouts Kyle Clemens and Christina Manning. Clemens brought his gold medal from the 2016 Rio Olympics, which he won won in the 4x400 meter relay.

The national award for Shook could be the high school equivalent of that gold medal. She was nominated last spring by Seahawks cross-country assistant coach Hugo Avina, and she found out she won after the cross-country team was called into a meeting by Ocean View Athletic Director Tim Walsh.

“I was just in complete shock,” Shook said. “It hit me when I got home and I was looking into it. I actually won this amazing award, this huge honor … They were like, ‘Only nine get awarded all over the country out of 150,000 [nominees].’ And I was just like, ‘Oh, God.’ ”

Athletically, Shook stands out. A midfielder in soccer, she has helped the team win three straight Golden West League titles, and Shook made the Daily Pilot Girls’ Track Dream Team last year in the 400 meters. In cross-country, she also is a key piece as the Seahawks girls are trying to contend for their first league title since 1993, coach Enrique Najera said.

But what makes Shook special isn’t just the athletics, he added. There was a reason why the coaching staff nominated her for the MaxPreps National Female Athlete of the Month.

“For the last four years, she’s been an exemplary student-athlete,” Najera said. “Not just for cross-country and track and soccer, but for the entire school. We feel that she is not only a great role model for all of the young women on campus, but also the young men. She has everyone’s respect. Everyone knows she works hard, has a great attitude, great character.”

Shook also excels in other areas. She has a 4.8 grade-point average and is the Ocean View ASB vice president. ASB director John Volo said Shook has been a leader in a school program called Social Society, where she helps classmates with social anxieties try to overcome them and feel more integrated in the school.

Walsh said that Shook is just a great leader, in all aspects. She is a part of the school’s athletic leadership council.

“She gives so much of herself, so much time to the program,” Walsh said. “Just so unselfish. And her teammates feel it. There’s great excitement on our campus this week because of who [is receiving this award]. Obviously, it’s a great honor for anybody, but there is so much genuine love on this campus for Micayla and what she does in all three programs. She’s always the first person to talk about somebody else and not herself.”

Shook said she is just naturally competitive. And that doesn’t always apply to other people, but sometimes just to herself.

“I know I can push myself harder,” she said. “I’m just naturally driven, but for me academics has always come first. To kind of get away from with that, I did sports, but then I got really competitive with my sports. I’ve kind of just put everything I have into both of those categories, as well as helping my community and my school.”

People have noticed. Shook is unsure of her college plans but her dream school is Rice University, where she’d like to run cross-country and track. In terms of her field of study, she said she’d like to study neuroscience and cognitive sciences.

There is the sense that wherever she goes after her high school days, she will succeed.

“She’s just a well-rounded human being,” Najera said. “She takes care of everyone.”

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo