CHICAGO (December 6, 201 8 ) — In its 34th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, today announced Max Duggan of Lewis Central High School as its 2018 – 19 Gatorade Iowa Football Player of the Year. Duggan is the first Gatorade Iowa Football Player of the Year to be chosen from Lewis Central 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 Duggan as Iowa ’s best high school football player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Football Player of the Year award to be announced in December, Duggan joins an elite alumni association of state award – winners in 12 sports, including Emmitt Smith (1 986 – 87, Escambia High School, Fla.), Matthew Stafford (2005 – 06 Highland Park High School , Texas) and Christian McCaffrey (2012 -13, 2013-14, Valor Christian High School, Colo.)
The 6 -foot-2, 195 -pound senior quarterback passed for 2,130 yards and 24 touch downs this past season, leading the Titans (11 – 1) to the Class 3A semifinals. Duggan completed 123 of 186 passes with just three interceptions, also rushing for 1,223 yards and 25 touchdowns on 113 carries. A First Team All – State selection, he was an Elite 11 national finalist and was twice named to the Des Moines Register Iowa Eight.
A member of his school’s student council, Duggan has volunteered locally on behalf of a campus clean – up initiative and a wheelchair athletes program. “Duggan is the toughest, best player and athlete on the field at all times,” said Cory Faust, head coach at Glenwood High. “He’s like an elite running back who plays quarterback. He takes great care of the ball and I’ve never seen him lack composure or class.”
Duggan has maintained a 3.53 GPA in the classroom. He has verbally committed to play football on scholarship at Texas Christian University next fall.
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 the Year in each sport. From the 12 national winners, one male and one female athlete are each named Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year. In all, 607 athletes are honored each year.
Duggan joins recent Gatorade Iowa Football Players of the Year Evan Flitz (2017 – 18, Iowa City West High School ), Oliver Martin (2016 – 17, Iowa City West High School ), Noah Clayberg (2015-16, Pella High School ), and Ryan Boyle (2014 -15 & 2013-14, Dowling Catholic High School) among the state’s list of former award winners.
As a part of Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Duggan has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of his choosing. He is also eligible to submit an essay to win one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants for the organization of choice, which will be announced throughout the year.
Since the program’s inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of professional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming coaches, business owners and educators.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student – athletes, visit www.Gatorade.com/POY, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Gatorade.
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