By sports reporter Terry Boehmker, NKyTribune
A few months after winning the Gatorade Player of the Year award in boys cross country for the second time in his high school career, Covington Catholic distance runner Will Sheets was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in Kentucky boys track.
The national program, which recognizes male and female student-athletes in a variety of sports for their achievements in competition, academics, and community service, has been sponsored by Gatorade for 40 years.
As the top scorer for the CovCath squad that won the Class 2A state championship competition, Sheets concluded his senior year in track. He scored a team-high 26 points for the Colonels in that meet, winning the 800-meter run and finishing second in the 1600 and 3200.
Sheets also participated in out-of-state track competitions in the spring, including events with different distances than those in Kentucky, according to the Gatorade press release.
With a time of 8:11.60, he placed second in the 3000-meter race at the Penn Relays Carnival, placing him eighth among high school boys runners nationwide. He set a national record of No. 18 in the mile with a time of 4:03.35 at the HOKA Festival of Miles.
Sheets, a recruit from the University of Virginia, was the president of the CovCath student body and maintained a 4.65 weighted GPA in the classroom. He worked as a volunteer at the DCCH Center for Children and Families and Family Promise of Northern Kentucky. Additionally, he gave his time to several community service projects run by his church and to youth toy drives.
The Gatorade Player of the Year in each sport is chosen by a selection committee that consists of coaches, scouts, media representatives, and others. A grant to support a social impact initiative is also given to each winner.
Sheets gave the $1,000 award he received earlier this year for winning the Gatorade Player of the Year award in boys’ cross country to the Matthew Mangine Jr. One Shot Foundation, which supplies local schools and sports organizations with medical emergency supplies like automated external defibrillators.
In his senior year of cross country last fall, Sheets led CovCath to the team championship by placing second in the Class 2A state competition and setting the state record for the fastest 5K time (14:44.57) during the regular season.
In November, he finished fourth in the Southeast Region meet, which featured 273 boys from various states, earning him a spot in the Nike NXN national cross-country championship meet. The time Sheets finished that race was 14:44.97.
In the 2022–2023 academic year, Sheets became the first CovCath student to win an individual state title in boys cross-country as a sophomore, earning him the Gatorade Player of the Year award for the first time.