Bossong Wins Gatorade Maine Player of Year Award

CHICAGO (June 25, 2020) -- In its 35th year of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company today announced Victoria Bossong of Cheverus High School as its 2019-20 Gatorade Maine Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year. Bossong is the second Gatorade Maine Girls Track & Field Athlete 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 Athlete of the Year award to be announced in June, 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 junior won three individual events at the Class A indoor state championship meet this past winter. The state's returning Gatorade Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year, Bossong won the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.50 seconds and set meet records of 7.20 in the 55- meter dash and 56.95 in the 400. She also placed second in the 300 at the 2020 New England Indoor Championships with a state record of 39.59 and finished fourth in the 55-meter dash. Bossong had a share in four gold medals at the Class A state meet in the spring of 2019, capturing the 100, 200, 400 and anchoring the victorious 4x400 relay.

Also a talented musician and president of her class, Bossong has participated in a service mission trip to the Philippines in addition to serving as a Eucharistic minister at her church and she has volunteered locally on behalf of the Preble Street soup kitchen. "Although her indoor season was cut short and her outdoor season cancelled, Victoria still had a phenomenal year," said Cheverus assistant coach Andrew Rose. "I think her biggest advantage is her drive to keep improving. Even when she sets a personal best or wins a state title, she's constantly asking how she could improve. She holds herself to an incredibly high standard and expects those around her to do the same."

Bossong has maintained a 4.18 GPA in the classroom. She will begin her senior year of high school 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 work with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.

Two-time winner Bossong joins recent Gatorade Maine Girls Track & Field Athletes of the Year Nyagoa Bayak (2017-18, Westbrook High School), Emma Gallant (2016-17, Cheverus High School), Adelaide Cooke (2015-16, Falmouth High School) and Kate Hall (2014-15, 2013-2014, 2012-2013, Lake Region High School) among the state's list of former award winners.

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 www.Gatorade.com/POY, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Gatorade.