FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MADISON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-ATHLETE NAMED GATORADE KANSAS BOYS TRACK & FIELD PLAYER OF THE YEAR
CHICAGO(June 29, 2022) - In its 37th year of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Casey Helm of Madison High School is the 2021-22 Gatorade Kansas Boys Track & Field Player of the Year. Helm is the first Gatorade Kansas Boys Track & Field Player of the Year to be chosen from Madison 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 Helm as Kansas's best high school boys track & field athlete. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Track & Field Player of the Year award to be announced in July, Helm 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 (2014- 15 & 2013-14, Grand Blanc High School, Mich.) and Candace Hill (2014-15, Rockdale County High School, Ga.).
The 6-foot-4, 250-pound senior set two state meet records at the Class 1A championship meet this past season, launching the discus 195 feet and hurling the shot 59-4.75. Helm also broke the overall state record in the discus with his season-best effort of 214-1. That throw ranked as the nation's No. 1 performance among prep competitors in 2022 and No. 18 in U.S. prep history.
Also a football standout, Helm has volunteered locally on behalf of blood-donation drives, the Special Olympics, Meals on Wheels and youth track programs. "Casey has worked tirelessly to be one of the best throwers in the nation," said Madison High School coach Alex McMillian. "He is so unbelievably consistent with his throws. He's been throwing so long that most of the time he knows what he did wrong before we coaches do."
Helm has maintained a 4.0 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to compete in track and field at Princeton University 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.
Helm joins recent Gatorade Kansas Boys Track & Field Players of the Year Tyus Wilson (2020-21, Sterling High School), Sam Hankins (2019-20, Manhattan High School), Tim Lambert (2018-19, Smoky Valley High School), and Michael Hoffer (2017-18, Shawnee Heights 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, Helm 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. Helm 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.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate studentathletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com or follow us on social media on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY, Instagram at instagram.com/Gatorade and Twitter at twitter.com/Gatorade.