Star Valley's Lawson Selected the 2024 Gatorade Wyo. Football POY

The Star Valley Braves have their first Gatorade Wyoming Football Player of the Year Award winner. Senior lineman Cooper Lawson was chosen for the 2024-25 honor. In its 40th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company announced the winner on Friday.

The 6-6, 265-pound senior two-way lineman was an all-state selection for the 3A state champion Braves helping them to a 12-0 record in the 2024 season. Lawson recorded 52 tackles this past season and anchored an offensive line that paved the way for the Braves to average 433 yards and 44.8 points per game. Cooper allowed only one sack. On defense, he had eight tackles for loss, two sacks, and 17 quarterback hurries. He was ranked as the state’s No. 3 recruit by 247 Sports.

In a release from The Gatorade Company, Riverton head coach Mark Lenhardt was very complimentary of the Star Valley senior.

“Cooper Lawson has been the most dominant lineman in the 3A classification for the past two years. Whenever Star Valley needed tough yards, they were most likely going to run behind him because he was so dominant in the run game. There isn’t one guy who has matched his physicality the past two seasons. For a kid his size, he moves very well and was somebody you had to account for on the defensive side of the ball. In Star Valley's 3-4 scheme, it was very difficult to generate movement to his side, which allowed their linebackers to stay clean and make plays. He will be a very good player at the next level in my opinion because he has all the tools to continue to develop and be great.”

In the classroom, Lawson maintains a 3.65 GPA. He signed with the University of Wyoming to play football for the Cowboys earlier this week. Formerly the Student Body Secretary at his SVHS, Lawson has volunteered locally on behalf of the community-formation and faith-based EBC Youth Group. He has also donated his time to his parish’s children’s church, the Wyoming Hunger Initiative, and the Afton Food Bank. An active 4-H participant with skills in raising pigs, sewing, cake decorating, leathercraft, public speaking, leadership, produce judging and meat identification, he achieved the title of Grand Champion in Foods at the Lincoln County Fair.

This award recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field. It distinguishes Lawson as Wyoming’s best high school football player. He is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Football Player of the Year award, which will be announced later this month.

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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, Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants have totaled more than $5.6 million across more than 2,000 organizations.

Lawson joins recent Gatorade Wyoming Football Players of the Year Dane Steel (2023-24) of Sheridan, Colson Coon (2021-22 and 2022-23) from Sheridan, and Graedyn Buell (2020-21) of Cheyenne East, among the state’s list of former award winners.

Information from a press release from The Gatorade Company was used in this story.