Borah High School dual-threat quarterback Austin Bolt is the 2019 Gatorade Idaho High School Football Player of the Year. Below is the full news release from Gatorade.
In its 35th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company today announced Austin Bolt of Borah High School as its 2019-20 Gatorade Idaho Football Player of the Year. Bolt is the second Gatorade Idaho Football Player of the Year to be chosen from Borah 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 Bolt as Idaho’s best high school football player.
Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Football Player of the Year award to be
announced in December, Bolt joins an elite group of past state football award-winners, including Emmitt Smith (1986-87, Escambia High School, Fla.), Matthew Stafford (2005-06 Highland Park High School, Texas) and Christian McCaffrey (2012-13, 2013-14, Valor Christian High School, Colo.).
The 6-foot-4, 215-pound senior quarterback and safety rushed for 1,391 yards and 26 touchdowns on 246 carries this past season, leading the Lions (7-3) to the Class 5A quarterfinals. Bolt completed 111 of 161 passes for 1,380 yards and 10 touchdowns, while recording 62 tackles and four interceptions on defense. An All-State honoree, he was also named the Southern Idaho Conference Class 5A Player of the Year.
Also a basketball standout, Bolt has volunteered locally on behalf of Boise Rescue Mission Ministries. “I can honestly say I’ve never seen a kid more dominant in this state than Austin Bolt,” said Ian Smart, head coach at Timberline High School. “He’s a great competitor and as a coach he required you to account for him in all three phases of the game, because he did everything tremendously well.”
Bolt has maintained a B average in the classroom. He remains undecided upon a collegiate destination. 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 and field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport. From the 12 national winners, one male and one female athlete are each named Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year. In all, 607 athletes are honored each year.
Bolt joins recent Gatorade Idaho Football Players of the Year Keegan Duncan (2018-19, Declo High School), Tommy Togiai (2017-18, Highland High School), Colson Yankoff (2016-17, Coeur d’Alene High School), Trey Bell (2015-16, Mountain View High School) and Tristen Hoge (2014-15, Highland High School), among the state’s list of former
award winners.
As a part of Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Bolt has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of his choosing. He is also eligible to submit an essay to win one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants for the organization of choice, which will be announced throughout the year.
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.
