Despite a lack of an Outdoor Track and Field season in 2020, last week Gatorade announced the Players of the Year across the Nation for the sport. Although we'll never know what the 2020 outdoor season had in store for us, I as well as most of the state, can fully get behind the two award winners.
KY Boys Gatorade POY:
Christian Lewis- Frederick Douglass
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Press Release (via playeroftheyear.gatorade.com):
CHICAGO (June 29, 2020) - In its 35th year of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, The Gatorade
Company today announced Christian Lewis of Frederick Douglass High School as its 2019-20 Gatorade Kentucky
Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year. Lewis is the first Gatorade Kentucky Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year to
be chosen from Frederick Douglass High School.
The 5-foot-11, 158-pound senior earned All-American honors at the 2019 New Balance Nationals Outdoor with a third place finish in the long jump. Lewis' personal-best leap of 24 feet, 6 inches ranked as the nation's No. 21 mark among
prep competitors during the 2019 outdoor season. Also the 2019 Class AAA Outdoor state meet champion in the long
jump, he was Kentucky's top-ranked athlete in the 200-meter dash and long jump during the 2020 indoor season.
Lewis has volunteered locally as a youth track coach, and he has donated his time to multiple community service
initiatives through his church. "I have known Christian since he was about eight years old," said Monty McIntyre, head
coach of Scott County High. "I would always notice him because he would work out before practice and after practice
on his own at that age. I knew then he was going to be special."
Lewis has maintained a weighted 3.37 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a national letter of intent to compete on an
athletic scholarship at the University of South Carolina
Lewis joins recent Gatorade Kentucky Boys Track & Field Athletes of the Year Langston Jackson (2018-19, Henry Clay
High School), Bryan Hudson (2017-18, Scott County High School), Isaiah McCall (2016-17, Bryan Station High School),
William Allen (2015-16, Paul Dunbar High School), Jaron Brooks (2014-15, Henry Clay High School), and Landon
Young (2013-14, Lafayette High School) among the state's list of former award winners.
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Press Release (via playeroftheyear.gatorade.com):
CHICAGO (June 25, 2020) - In its 35th year of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, The Gatorade
Company today announced Sophie Galloway of Graves County High School as its 2019-20 Gatorade Kentucky Girls
Track & Field Athlete of the Year. Galloway is the first Gatorade Kentucky Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year to be
chosen from Graves County High School.
The state's two-time returning Gatorade Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year, the 6-foot junior set a state record this
winter in the triple jump. Galloway's record-setting leap of 40 feet, 2.25 inches at the Music City High School Indoor
Invitational ranked as the nation's No. 7 mark among prep competitors during the 2020 indoor season. A five-time state
champion, Galloway also owns the state outdoor triple-jump record of 40-7. She won the long jump and triple jump at
the Class AAA Outdoor state meet as a freshman and sophomore, and she finished second in both events as an eighth grader.
Galloway has established her own track and field scholarship fund to annually benefit a graduating Graves County High
athletes. She has volunteered locally as a youth track coach, and she has donated her time on behalf of multiple
fundraising campaigns to benefit special-needs children and a women's shelter. "Not only has Sophie become a better
jumper and hurdler in the last year, she has added more events to her repertoire and become more versatile," said
Bobby Potts, head coach of Graves County High. "She is blossoming into a full multi-event athlete."
Galloway has maintained a 3.75 GPA in the classroom. She will begin her senior year of high school this fall.