Colson Coon Of Sheridan HS Named 2021 WY Football Gatorade Player Of The Year

In its 37th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade announced Colson Coon of Sheridan High School is the 2021-22 Gatorade Wyoming Football Player of the Year.

Coon is the ninth Gatorade Wyoming Football Player of the Year to be chosen from Sheridan 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 Coon as Wyoming’s best high school football player.

Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Football Player of the Year award to be announced in December, Coon joins an elite alumni association of state 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 5-foot-10, 180-pound junior running back and linebacker rushed for 1,648 yards and 22 touchdowns on 215 carries this past season, leading the Broncs (11-1) to the Class 4A state championship.

Coon also caught 18 passes for 305 yards and four touchdowns, while contributing 69 tackles, three sacks and two interceptions on defense.

The Class 4A Offensive Player of the Year, he is a two-time All-Conference selection.

A wrestling and soccer standout, Coon has assisted with special needs students in his school and has
volunteered locally on behalf of the Broncs Builders service program.

“Colson Coon is an all-around unreal player,” said Chad Goff, head coach at Cheyenne East High School. “The stuff he can do with the ball in his hands is incredible. He can run up the middle, he can beat you to the outside, and he does a lot of good things on defense too.”

Coon has maintained a 3.64 GPA in the classroom.

He will begin his senior year of high school next 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 leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the state winners in each sport.

Coon joins recent Gatorade Wyoming Football Players of the Year Graedyn Buell (2020-21, Cheyenne East High School), Garrett Coon (2019-20, Sheridan High School), Parker Christensen (2018-19, Sheridan High School), and Brett Brenton (2017-18, Natrona County High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.

Gatorade has a long-standing history of serving athlete communities and understands how sports instill valuable lifelong skills on and off the field.

Through Gatorade’s “Play it Forward” platform, Coon has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national organization of their choosing that helps young athletes realize the benefits of playing sports.

Coon is also eligible to submit a short 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 $3.5 million across more than 1,300 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.