CHICAGO (June 20, 2024) — In its 39th year of honoring the nation’s most elite high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Lily Boydstun of Mountain Vista High School is the 2023-24 Gatorade Colorado Girls Soccer Player of the Year. Boydstun is the third Gatorade Colorado Girls Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Mountain Vista High School.
The award, which celebrates the nation’s top high school athletes for excellence on the field, in the classroom and in the community, distinguishes Boydstun as Colorado’s best high school girls soccer player. From CEOs and coaches to star athletes, Gatorade Player of the Year winners showcase the power of sport, touting an all-star group of alumni that includes Aly Wagner (1997-98, Presentation High School, Calif.), Mallory Swanson (2014-15, Mountain Vista High School, Colo.) and Kennedy Fuller (2022-23 & 2021-22, Southlake Carroll High School, Texas).
The 5-foot-8 senior midfielder led the Golden Eagles to an 18-0-1 record and the Class 5A state championship this past season. Boydstun scored 10 goals and passed for four assists, setting up the lone goal in Mountain Vista’s 1-0 win over Rock Canyon High School in the state final. Also the Class 5A Player of the Year, she also played a key role in the Eagles’ defensive third, a unit which conceded just six goals all season and only one in the team’s five-game postseason run to the state title.
A member of her school’s Link Crew, Boydstun has volunteered locally as a youth soccer coach and has donated her time with the U.S. Youth Soccer TOPSoccer program serving young athletes with physical and intellectual challenges. “Lily was the main reason they were as good as they were this year,” said Mike Parsons, head coach of ThunderRidge High School. “She presents problems for defenses with her versatility and the fact that her coach is able to move her around the field.”
Boydstun has maintained a 3.84 GPA in the classroom. She has signed a national letter of intent to play soccer on scholarship at the University of Arkansas 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.
Boydstun joins recent Gatorade Colorado Girls Soccer Players of the Year Kate Runyon (2022-23, Jefferson Academy), Jordan Nytes (2021-22, Grandview High School), Degen Miller (2020-21, Dawson School) and Mallory Mooney (2019-20, Broomfield High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.
As part of Gatorade’s commitment to breaking down barriers in sport, every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner. To date, the Gatorade Player of the Year program has provided more than $4.9 million in grants to winners across more than 1,900 organizations.
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 X(Twitter) at x.com/Gatorade.