CHEVERUS HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-ATHLETE NAMED
GATORADE MAINE GIRLS TRACK & FIELD PLAYER OF THE YEAR
CHICAGO (July 2, 2021) - In its 36th year of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, Gatorade today
announced Victoria Bossong of Cheverus High School as its 2020-21 Gatorade Maine Girls Track & Field Player of
the Year. Bossong is the second Gatorade Maine Girls Track & Field Player of the Year to be chosen from Cheverus
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 Bossong as Maine's best high
school girls track & field athlete. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Track & Field Player of the
Year award to be announced in July, Bossong joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports,
including Lolo Jones (1997-98, Roosevelt High School, Iowa), Allyson Felix (2002-03, Los Angeles Baptist High School,
Calif.), Robert Griffin III (2006-07, Copperas Cove High School, Texas), Grant Fisher (2013-14 & 2014-15, Grand Blanc
High School, Mich.) and Candace Hill (2014-15, Rockdale County High School, Ga.).
The 5-foot-6 senior won three individual events at the Class A state championship meet this past season. The state's
two-time returning Gatorade Player of the Year in girls track and field, Bossong set meet records of 55.08 seconds in the
400-meter dash and 2:10.66 in the 800-meter run. She also broke the tape in the 100 dash with a time of 11.81-setting
a meet record of 11.73 in the preliminary round and added a silver medal in the 200.
Also a talented musician and president of her class, Bossong has served as a Eucharistic minister at her church and has
volunteered locally on behalf of the Preble Street soup kitchen. "Victoria is unlike any athlete I've ever had the pleasure
of coaching," said Cheverus assistant coach Andrew Rose. "She has achieved almost every goal she set for herself or
that I set for her over the course of these last four years. Both on and off of the track, she has been a model example of
everything a coach would want to see in any athlete."
Bossong has maintained a 4.19 GPA in the classroom. She will attend Harvard University this fall, where she will
compete in track and field.
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 works with
top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine
the state winners in each sport.
Three-time winner Bossong joins recent Gatorade Maine Girls Track & Field Players of the Year Nyagoa Bayak (2017-18,
Westbrook High School), and Emma Gallant (2016-17, Cheverus High School), among the state's list of former award
winners.
Through Gatorade's cause marketing platform "Play it Forward," Bossong has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant
to a local or national youth sports organization of their choosing. Bossong is also eligible to submit a 30-second 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 $2.7
million across 1,117 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.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes,
visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at
twitter.com/Gatorade.