CHICAGO — In its 37th year of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Micah Larry of Montverde Academy is the 2021-22 Gatorade Florida Boys Track & Field Player of the Year. Larry is the first Gatorade Florida Boys Track & Field Player of the Year to be chosen from Montverde Academy.
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 Larry as Florida'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, Larry 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 5-foot-9, 130-pound junior jumper and sprinter won three individual state titles at the Class 2A state meet this past season, helping the Eagles to second place as a team. Larry broke the tape in the 200-meter dash with a personal-best time of 21.06, soared a state-record 25 feet, 11.5 inches in the long jump and won the 100 dash. This spring, he produced two performances that ranked in the national Top 15 among prep competitors in 2022, including the No. 1 long jump and the No. 6 clocking in the 100. His best 200 ranked No. 34 in the nation, and his fourth-place finish in the 100 at adidas Nationals earned him All-American status. His winning long jump at nationals was almost 24 feet, while his state record in the event ranked No. 14 in American prep history at the time of his selection.
Larry has volunteered locally as a volunteer coach for athletes with physical challenges on behalf of DreamPlex Clermont, and he has donated his time serving meals to the houseless at the Orlando Union Rescue Mission. He has also given his time to Rad Ride with the Police, helping kids learn how to ride a bike safely. "Micah has a way of motivating everyone around him and uplifting the mood of any room he walks into," said Eagles head coach Gerald Phiri. "He is one of the most competitive athletes I've ever met and he is not afraid of failure. He embraces new challenges and often seeks them out, as he is obsessed with getting better."
Larry has maintained a B average in the classroom. He will begin his senior year of high school 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.
Larry joins recent Gatorade Florida Boys Track & Field Players of the Year Leonard Mustari (2020-21, Dunbar High School), Jevon Williams (2019-20, Blanche Ely High School), Jacob Lemmon (2018-19, Fort Myers High School), and Anthony Schwartz (2017-18, American Heritage 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, Larry 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. Larry 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 student athletes, 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.
