Oak Mountain High School rising senior Cooper Jeffcoat is the 2024-25 Gatorade Alabama Boys Track & Field Player of the Year, the company announced on Wednesday.

Jeffcoat, a 6-foot-2, 130-pound middle-distance and distance runner, won the national title in the 800-meter run at the RunningLane Track Championships with an Alabama record finish of 1:49.75. That effort ranked 28th nationally among high school boys competitors.

Jeffcoat won the 800 in the Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 7A state championship track meet. He finished third in the 1600 with a personal best 4:12.93 and was sixth in the 400-meters.

“Jeffcoat set a state record in the 800 en route to a national title,” Rich Gonzalez, editor of PrepCalTrack.com, said in the Gatorade news release. “Throw in his range from 400 meters out to 1600 and he’s got a very impressive resume this spring.”

Jeffcoat maintained a 3.47 grade point average at Oak Mountain and volunteered for the OTM youth track program. He is also a member of the Church of the Highlands congregation.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program is in its 40th year of honoring the nation’s top high school athletes.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states across 12 different high school sports – 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. 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 the state winners in each sport.

Every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner. To date, the Gatorade Player of the Year program has provided more than $5.6 million in grants to winners across more than 2,000 organizations.