After an impressive junior year, Worland forward Cole Venable has been chosen as the 2020-21 Gatorade Wyoming Boys Soccer Player of the Year.

In its 36th year of honoring the best high school athletes in the nation, The Gatorade Company released this year’s award winner on Friday.

Venable is the second-ever winner from Worland High School. He joins Conrrado ‘Con’ Deniz who received this award during his senior year at Worland in 2004-05.

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Venable scored 40 goals and dished out 14 assists during the 2021 season. He helped the Worland Warriors to a 17-0 record and the Class 3A state championship. In the title match, Venable scored the lone goal of that match on a PK in the 20th minute, which gave the Warriors the 3A boys' soccer crown. Worland has won 46 consecutive matches and the last three Class 3A boys soccer titles in Wyoming.

The 5-9 forward was a first-team all-state and all-conference selection. He was also named the Class 3A Underclassman of the Year.

Venable maintains a 4.0 GPA and has served as a mentor for elementary school students and has volunteered locally on behalf of Meals on Wheels and youth soccer programs.

Lander soccer coach Dean Schaff had high praise for Venable in the release from The Gatorade Company.

“Cole Venable is a very dynamic player. He’s extremely tough to defend, and he can compete with anyone. That team works through him on almost every possession.”

This award recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field. It distinguishes Venable as Wyoming’s best high school boys soccer player. He is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Soccer Player of the Year award to be announced later in June.

Venable joins recent Gatorade Wyoming Boys Soccer Players of the Year Joe Musselman (2019-20) from Buffalo High School, Isaac Howell (2018-19) of Thunder Basin High School in Gillette, Patrick Marchal (2017-18) of Green River High School, and Cheyenne Central’s Ross Elliott (2016-17), among the state’s list of former award winners.

Through Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Venable has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of their choosing. Venable 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 has totaled more than $2.7 million across 1,117 organizations.

To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or nominate student-athletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/Gatorade.

Information from a release by The Gatorade Company was used in this story.

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