Venable named Gatorade Player of the Year

WORLAND - The awards keep coming for the Worland Warriors soccer program. Last week, Warrior Cole Venable was named the Wyoming Gatorade boys soccer player of the year.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program recognizes the nation's most outstanding high school student-athletes for their athletic excellence, academic achievement and exemplary character.

Venable led the Warriors in scoring this season with 40 goals, a program record, and logged 14 assists this season, third-best on the team. He also helped the Warriors three-peat as 3A State champions when he scored the championship's only goal of the game off a penalty kick.

"It's a tremendous honor for Cole. I'm so proud of him," said WHS boys soccer coach Ron Overcast. This isn't something you just earn in soccer season, he's been putting the work in since he was 6 years old. I'm just so happy for him, and I know that his teammates are very proud of him. It's something for our program to be proud of, we have a Gatorade player of the year. It's pretty cool."

Venable is the second Warrior soccer player to win the Gatorade PoY and the third WHS student-athlete to do so this century. Conrrado Deniz won the soccer PoY in 2005, and Hoyt Nicholas was the basketball PoY in 2016.

Adding another Gatorade PoY and the first for Overcast since becoming the head coach adds to the Warrior soccer program lore and their dominant stretch over the past four years.

"Cole has put in a ton of work, and he earned this honor with his work ethic. We had an open field the other night, and he's continued to work, and he'll be a great leader. Especially for the younger kids coming up. Hopefully, they'll look up to him and follow his lead and put in the work it requires to get to that level," said Overcast. "I introduced my grandson to Cole and told him that this kid right here is the best player in Wyoming. Then I woke up the next day and learned that he got the award."

His freshman season, Venable was a starting center midfielder for the Warriors. Missing his sophomore season due to COVID canceling the season, Venable was moved to the left outside wing. The versatility in Venable's game speaks to the hard work he's put in to be a complete player.

"He was good his freshman year too. His technical abilities have improved so much from his freshman season. He's worked on his shot so much, and his finishing around the goal is outstanding. Defensively, he's worked hard at that and bought into that part of his game. Every aspect of his game has really improved. That goes back to the work he does in the offseason and how hard he works in practice," said Overcast.

What's even better for the Warriors and Overcast is that Venable is only a junior and will be back for more in his senior campaign.

"That's the incredible part of it, Cole's just a junior. Juniors don't often win this, but a lot of the time, it's seniors. So to get it as a junior is impressive, and I'm just proud of him. He earned this, he really did. He's been working at this since youth soccer, and there are a lot of people who have helped him get to where he's at right now.

"I like having him out there on the wing because it makes the other team's job more difficult to man-mark him out there. He's adapted really well to that and learned the position well too. He knows when to cut in and when to stay on the outside. He's a great passer too. He can do so much for us, and I've already tried thinking of ways to make things difficult for our opponents next year because he will definitely be a marked man," said Overcast.