St. Ignatius High School Student Athlete Named
Gatorade Ohio Boys Soccer Player of the Year
In its 37th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade announced Nolan Spicer
of Saint IgnatiusHigh School as the 2021-22 Gatorade Ohio Boys Soccer Player of the Year. Spicer is the sixth Gatorade Ohio Boys Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Saint Ignatius 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 Spicer as Ohio’s best high school boys’ soccer player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Soccer Player of the Year award, the 5-9”, 145-pound junior midfielder led the Wildcats to a 23-0 record and a third-straight Division I state championship this past season.
Spicer tallied 26 goals and 12 assists, including the overtime game-winner in St. Ignatius’ 2-1 win over Centerville High in the state title game. A First Team All-State selection, he concluded his junior year with 43|goals and 22 assists in his prep soccer career.
“When watching Nolan play, it is easy to identify that he is the most talented player on the field on almost every singleoccasion,” said Chris Dore, head coach of Avon High School. “He takes over games with his ability to weave his way through defenses and find dangerous areas to create and eventually assist on or score goals. It almost seems like whenNolan decides to score, he scores. He could be the most creative and fluid playmaker that has ever come through our area.”
Spicer has maintained a weighted 4.16 GPA in the classroom. He has made a verbal commitment to play soccer on scholarship at the University of Notre Dame beginning in the fall of 2023.
Gatorade Player of the Year Program
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 theYear 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 thestate winners in each sport.
Spicer joins recent Gatorade Ohio Boys Soccer Players of the Year Luciano Pechota (2020-21, Saint Ignatius High School), Kyle Folds (2019-20, Saint Ignatius High School), Brennan Callow (2018-19, The Seven Hills School),and Luke Kiley (2017-18, Dublin Coffman 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, Spicer could award a $ 1,000 grant toa local or national organization of their choosing that helps young athletes realize the benefits of playing sports.
