CHSAA Celebrates 2023-24 Players of the Year

AURORA – The Colorado High School Activities Association would like to congratulate its membership for another successful year. Throughout 2023-24, CHSAA crowned 104 players of the year across its sports and activities, with 68 different schools having at least one athlete represented and 20 schools being represented by multiple athletes.

Valor Christian had the most student-athletes named the player of the year in their respective sports, with six. Erie and Summit had the next most, with four players of the year each.

Three different player of the year winners had a parent win coach of the year this season, with two such pairs coming from Merino. Kya Piel won the 2A Girls Track and Field Player of the Year award father Daniel Piel was the 2A Girls Basketball Coach of the Year award, and Makenna Sutter won 1A Girls Volleyball Player of the Year and Christin Sutter won 1A Girls Volleyball Coach of the Year. The third pairing was between the 4A Girls Softball Player of the Year, Hailey Maestretti, and the 4A Girls Softball Coach of the Year, Glen Maestretti, both representing Lutheran.

There were also 11 underclassmen who earned player of the year honors, including three freshmen, with all three being girls. In just their first year of high school athletics, Nicole Celechovsky was named the 3A Girls Tennis Player of the Year, Abigail Trapp was named the 4A Girls Track and Field Player of the Year, and Elodie Olsen was named the Girls Alpine Skier of the Year.

Additional highlights from this year include:

• Isabel Allori earned 3A Girls Cross Country Player of the Year honors on her path to winning more individual state championships than anyone else in Colorado this year. Allori totaled five individual state titles and, even more impressively, she was one of just nine athletes to win her state championships across multiple events
• Kail Wayman, the player of the year for 8-man football, tallied six rushing touchdowns in the state championship final to help Mancos secure its second state title of any kind and its first ever in football.
• On top of being named the 4A Girls Cross Country Player of the Year, Niwot’s Addison Ritzenhein earned the honor of being Gatorade’s National Girls Cross Country Player of the Year.
• Pueblo South senior Maurice Austin was named 4A Boys Basketball Player of the Year thanks, in large part, to his remarkable production on both ends of the court. Austin was the leading scorer in boys basketball across all classifications, with 31.6 points per game, 3.0 more than the next-most prolific scorer, and was third across the entire state in steals, with a whopping 6.0 steals per game.
• Three different player of the year winners helped topple old records this season. On the track, Peyton Sommers helped Cherokee Trail’s 4x200m relay team set a new colorado preps record. In the pool, 4A Boys Swimmer of the Year Jake Eccleston set a new state meet record in the 100 breaststroke, only for 5A Boys Swimmer of the Year Eli Hobson to top it shortly after.
• Zoe Martin added a pair of scoring accomplishments to her remarkable high school resume, as she tallied the 200th girls lacrosse goal and the 100th field hockey of her career, with the latter coming in a state championship final victory. Martin is now slated to continue her career in both sports at the University of Michigan.

If you know of additional highlights that should be considered for inclusion here, please submit them here.

If you want to personalize and order your own personal state champion or runner-up trophy, do so on this website. 
 

2023-24 Players of the Year