by CHICAGO (June 29, 2022) — In its 37th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Kutoven Stevens of Yerington High School is the 2021-22 Gatorade Nevada Boys Track & Field Player of the Year. Stevens is the first Gatorade Nevada Boys Track & Field Player of the Year to be chosen from Yerington 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 Stevens as Nevada’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, Stevens 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 state’s 2021-22 Gatorade Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year, the 5-foot-9, 130-pound senior swept the 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs at the Class 2A state meet this past season, leading the Lions to a sixth-place finish as a team. Stevens earned All-American status by finishing fifth in the 2-mile run at New Balance Nationals Outdoor with a time of 8:58.52, which ranked No. 15 nationally among prep competitors in 2022 at the time of his selection. He set a state record in the 3,200 at the Arcadia Invitational, finishing fourth in the race in 8:54.83, which ranked No. 29 in the country this spring.
A devoted member of his First Nations tribe, Stevens organized the Remembrance Run, a two-day, 50-mile run honoring the Native Americans who were forced from their homes and mistreated at boarding schools. “It’s hard to describe what an amazing athlete Kutoven is,” said Tom LeFevers, head coach of North Tahoe High School. “He is probably the best ‘pure’ runner I have seen in my career and in over 30 years, I have seen many amazing athletes. He is amazing and somehow humble at the same time.”
Stevens has maintained a weighted 3.93 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to compete on an athletic scholarship at the University of Oregon 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.
Stevens joins recent Gatorade Nevada Boys Track & Field Players of the Year Zachariah Branch (2020-21, Bishop Gorman High School), Justin Watterson (2019-20, Coronado High School), and Corey Moore (2018-19 & 2017-18, Liberty 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, Stevens 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. Stevens 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.
