Orion Ostheimer Of Buffalo Named 2025 WY Gatorade Boys Soccer Player Of The Year

In its 40th year of honoring the nation’s most elite high school athletes, Gatorade announced Orion Ostheimer of Buffalo High School is the 2024-25 Gatorade Wyoming Boys Soccer Player
of the Year.

Gatorade Player of the Year is the top honor in high school sports, celebrating the nation’s best high school athletes for their success on the field, in the classroom and in the community.

The award distinguishes Ostheimer as Wyoming’s best high school boys soccer player, and he joins an impressive group of alumni that spans CEOs, coaches and star athletes such as Ben Bender (2019-20, Calvert Hall College High School, M.D.) and Ransford Gyan (2022-23 & 2023-24, St. Benedict’s Preparatory School, N.J.).

The 5-foot-11, 177-pound junior keeper led the Bison to a 12-4 record and the Class 3A state title this past season.

Ostheimer posted a 0.63 goals-against average, recording 10 shutouts and turning back 47 of 57 shots.

A First Team All-State selection, he stopped three of seven penalty kicks this spring including two in a shootout win over Cody High School (0-0, 4-3 PKs) to win the state title, the program’s first since 2013.

A member of Johnson County 4-H, Buffalo Community Steel Drums, his school’s marching, pep, and concert bands and choir as well as his school’s Future Business Leaders of America club, Ostheimer represented Wyoming at the National Washington D.C. Close Up program this spring.

Also a member of the Bison golf, indoor track and swim teams, he has volunteered locally on behalf of the Buffalo Recycling Center, Friends Feeding Friends, the Buffalo Baseball Association, St. Francis Animal Shelter, the Kids Christmas Shoppe and the Clear Creek Middle School Beautification Project.

He is also a member of his Summit Church youth group. “Orion dedicated himself to improvement this past year, attacking the weight room, playing all of the soccer that he could in club and indoor and working out diligently with our team’s goaltender coach,” said Buffalo High School head coach Richard Edgecomb. “His quickness, strength and confidence have improved immensely. He has also turned himself into a vocal leader on the team.”

Ostheimer has maintained a 3.79 weighted GPA in the classroom.

He will begin his senior year of high school this fall.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states across 12 different high school sports – 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 leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the state winners in each sport.

As part of Gatorade’s commitment to breaking down barriers in sport, every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner.

To date, the Gatorade Player of the Year program has provided more than $5.6 million in grants to winners across more than 2,000 organizations.