For 30 years, Gatorade has recognized the best athletes you’ve never heard of. High school students who don’t just dominate the game, but are also at the top of their class. In the past these big names have been nothing but a line item on the POY website, and we wanted them to be more than just a name on the list. But with 609 state winners every year, that seemed like an impossible task. So we created a customizable online platform created just for them that gave them a voice to tell their own stories.  Through personally customizable pages, the POY website became a window into the lives of the best high school student athletes of 2014. Tournaments, tests and the strength to overcome it all came to life in stories from across the nation.These weren’t tweets and status updates. Athletes and their coaches shared their hardships, their struggles and their mantras. Creating the story of what it took for them to become a Gatorade Player of the Year. The best part about this whole concept is their stories could live on forever — their legacies never forgotten.

LINK TO SITE

But we didn’t stop there. For the 12 national winners, we took it to the next level and brought the online platform to the real world. On connected devices at the ESPYs, we let them continue their story, and fans from all over got in on the action.

After all is said and done, it's athletes like Karl Towns Jr., who's story we want to share with our audience.   

“Academics do count, we are not just athletes, we are student athletes. I just want to thank Gatorade for showing us that having a GPA is important. And life isn’t just about having 20 points per game.”- Karl Anthony Towns 

CREDIT//

Group Creative Director: Josh Kell

Art Director: Amanda Laffoon

Senior Copywriter: Ryan Simpson

Copywriter: Robert Abasolo