Wolpert Named Vermont Gatorade Player of the Year

From Gatorade Player of the Year for Immediate Release:

RICE MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-ATHLETE NAMED
GATORADE VERMONT BASEBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR

CHICAGO (June 3, 2022) — In its 37th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Tanner Wolpert of Rice Memorial High School is the 2021-22 Gatorade Vermont Baseball Player of the Year. Wolpert is the first Gatorade Vermont Baseball Player of the Year to be chosen from Rice Memorial 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 Wolpert as Vermont’s best high school baseball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year award to be announced in June, Wolpert joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Derek Jeter (1991-92, Kalamazoo High School, Mich.), Jon Lester (2001-02, Bellarmine Preparatory School, Wash.), David Price (2003-04, Blackman High School, Tenn.), Clayton Kershaw (2005-06, Highland Park High School, Texas), Rick Porcello (2006-2007, Seaton Hall Preparatory School, N.J.) and Kris Bryant (2009-10, Bonanza High School, Nev.).

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound senior left-handed pitcher and first baseman had led the Green Knights to a 9-6 record and a berth in the Division 1 state tournament at the time of his selection. Wolpert batted .500 through 15 games, with six home runs, 25 RBI and a slugging percentage of 1.125. He also posted a 4-2 record on the mound with a 1.57 ERA and two saves, striking out 68 batters in 35.2 innings pitched. He was the Metro League Player of the Year as a junior.

Wolpert has volunteered locally on behalf of Spectrum Youth and Family Services and a youth basketball camp. “Wolpert is one of the three best pitchers in Division 1, but he’s also one of the top three hitters in the state,” said Marcel Girouard, head coach at Burlington High School. “He just scares you when he’s coming to the plate late in a close game.”

Wolpert has maintained an A average in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to play baseball on scholarship at George Washington 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.

Wolpert joins recent Gatorade Vermont Baseball Players of the Year Owen Kellington (2020-21, U32 High School), Jack Ambrosino (2019-20, South Burlington High School), Ian Parent (2018-19, Champlain Valley Union High School), and Nick Fitzgerald (2017-18, Lamoille Union 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, Wolpert 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. Wolpert 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.

For more on Tanner view the article from the Burlington Free Press HERE