Sheridan’s Sam Lecholat Repeats as Gatorade Boys Basketball Player of the Year

For the second straight year, Sheridan High School’s Sam Lecholat has been chosen as the Gatorade Wyoming Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

In its 36th year of honor the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company announced Lecholat as the winner of this year’s honor on Friday.

The 6-6 senior helped Sheridan to a 19-4 overall record and a third-place finish at the Class 4A state basketball tournament in March of this year. Lecholat averaged 17.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game. He also contributed 3.3 assists, 1.9 blocks, and 1.4 steals per game. Lecholat shot 50 percent from the field, 33 percent from beyond the arc, and 73 percent at the free-throw line this past season. He posted 12 double-doubles and led the Broncs in scoring in all but five games during his senior year. That included a 34-point, 24-rebound performance against Campbell County on Feb. 19, 2021.

Lecholat is a three-time all-state and all-conference selection in 4A boys’ basketball. He was also the Class 4A East Region Player of the Year for 2020-21.

The returning Gatorade State Player of the Year, Lecholat has volunteered locally as part of community beautification projects and with the Salvation Army.

“Sam is unselfish, hard-working, and a great overall player,” said Jeff Bailey, head coach of Cheyenne South High. “He can create mismatches all over the floor with his inside-outside game.”

Lecholat has signed to play basketball in college at Montana State University. He maintained a 3.85 GPA in the classroom.

The 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 Lecholat as Wyoming’s best high school boys basketball player. He is a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year award to be announced later this month.

Two-time winner Lecholat joins recent Gatorade Wyoming Boys Basketball Players of the Year Erik Oliver from Cheyenne East High School (2018-19), and Trey Hladky of Campbell County High School (2017-18 & 2016-17), among the states’ list of former award winners.

Through Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Lecholat has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of their choosing. Lecholat is also eligible to submit a 30-second 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 has totaled more than $2.7 million across 1,117 organizations.

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