Charlie Hoelscher named Gatorade Wyoming boys soccer player of the year
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — In its 37th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Charlie Hoelscher of Jackson Hole High School is the 2021-22 Gatorade Wyoming Boys Soccer Player of the Year. Hoelscher is the third Gatorade Wyoming Boys Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Jackson Hole 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 Hoelscher as Wyoming’s best high school boys soccer player. Hoelscher is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Soccer Player of the Year award to be announced in June.
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound senior midfielder and forward scored 16 goals and passed for 22 assists this past season, leading the Broncs (18-1) to the Class 4A state championship. Hoelscher is a three-time First Team All-State selection. He finished his prep career with 31 goals and 42 assists.
Hoelscher has volunteered locally on behalf of his school’s Best Buddies program, the Special Olympics and youth soccer programs.
“Hoelscher is a very powerful forward with great speed, dribbling, and an outstanding shot,” said Alan Wendlandt, head coach at Rock Springs High School. “He also understands the game very well.”
Hoelscher has maintained a weighted 3.80 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to play soccer on scholarship at the University of St. Thomas this 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.
Hoelscher joins recent Gatorade Wyoming Boys Soccer Players of the Year Cole Venable (2020-21, Worland High School), Joe Musselman (2019-20, Buffalo High School), Isaac Howell (2018-19, Thunder Basin High School), and Patrick Marchal (2017-18, Green River 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, Hoelscher 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.
Hoelscher 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.
