The decorated high school career of Covington Catholic’s Will Sheets just added some more merit to it.
Sheets was named Gatorade Track and Field Player of the Year on Wednesday. It’s the third time Sheets has been awarded with a Gatorade Player of the Yeart honor, something that has been done by fewer than 20 athletes in the 40th year of honoring the nation’s most elite athletes.
His senior track and field season is one that came with three state records. The 6-foot-3, 175-pound senior set a state record in the 3,000-meter run at the Penn Relays Carnival, finishing with a time of 8:11.60, ranking eighth nationally for boys prep runners. He also set a state record in the mile at the HOKA Festival of Miles, running a 4:03.05, good for 18th nationally. At the KHSAA Class 2A track and field meet, Sheets won the 800 meters and finished second in the 1,600 and 3,200 meters, helping the Colonels to back-to-back state titles. One last state record came in his final home prep meet of his career, clocking a 8:48.67 in the two-mile, a time that ranks No. 2 nationally.
Sheets was also the 2022-23 and 2024-25 Gatorade Kentucky Boys Cross Country Player of the Year.
Sheets run to stardom started his sophomore year when he won a Class 3A state championship in cross country, the first-ever individual to win one for the Colonels. He was named Gatorade Kentucky Cross Country Runner of the Year and Northern Kentucky Co-Runner of the Year. In track and field, Sheets won a state title in the 3,200 and was a member of the 4×800 state champion relay team, setting a school record in the event.
As a junior, Sheets’ cross country season was injury plagued, missing the majority of the season before returning to place third in the KHSAA Class 2A state meet, helping the Colonels win a state title. In track and field, he finished runner-up in both the 1,600 and 3,200, helping the team win their first state track and field title since 2009.
On top of a busy athletic career, Sheets is the student body president at Covington Catholic and has signed with the University of Virginia to continue his running and academic career. He graduated with a 4.65 weighted GPA.
From Gatorade:
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.