Taco Dowler - MT Gatorade POY

[HelenaCat95]

Taco Dowler was just named the Montana Gatorade Player of the Year.
I'd post the link, but I'm old and technically challenged....and hard to post from my flip phone.

[HelenaCat95]

There's a perfect NIL opportunity here. Get a Taco and a Gatorade.

[Catfanatic84]

Congrats Taco!

[Rich K]

https://playeroftheyear.gatorade.com/po ... Dowler.pdf

CHICAGO (December 7, 2021) — In its 37th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade
today announced Taco Dowler of Billings West High School is the 2021-22 Gatorade Montana Football Player of
the Year. Dowler is the seventh Gatorade Montana Football Player of the Year to be chosen from Billings West
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 Dowler as Montana’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, Dowler joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners, including Emmitt
Smith (1986-87, 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 5-foot-9, 175-pound senior wide receiver and defensive back caught 59 passes for 943 yards and nine
touchdowns this past season, leading the Golden Bears (10-2) to the Class AA state championship game. Dowler
also rushed six times for 61 yards, and recorded 22 tackles and two interceptions on defense. A three-time All-State
selection at wide receiver, he was a two-time All-State pick at defensive back, kick returner and punt returner as
well.
A standout on the track oval, Dowler has volunteered by assisting special needs students in his school. “Taco Dowler
is a game-changer,” said Kyle Mihelish, head coach at Capital High School. “They give him the ball in a lot of
different situations and he can score from anywhere. He’s a tremendous player who you have to double-cover all
the time.”
Dowler has maintained a 3.50 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to play football on
scholarship at Montana State 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. 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.
Dowler joins recent Gatorade Montana Football Players of the Year Dylan Rollins (2020-21, Sentinel High School),
Tommy Mellott (2019-20, Butte High School), Carson Rostad (2018-19, Hamilton High School), and Gabe Sulser
(2017-18, Billings Senior 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, Dowler has the opportunity to
award a $1,000 grant to a local or national organization of their choosing that helps young athletes realize the
benefits of playing sports. Dowler is also eligible to submit a short video explaining why the organization they chose
is deserving of one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants, which will be announced throughout the year. To date,
Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants have totaled more than $3.5 million across more than 1,300
organizations.
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 studentathletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com or follow us on social media on Facebook at
facebook.com/GatoradePOY, Instagram at instagram.com/Gatorade and Twitter at twitter.com/Gatorade.

[catatac]

Yes! Awesome job and I'm super stoked he's a Bobcat! On a related note, how the **** did Troy Andersen not win the GPOY in Football or Track?

[kennethnoisewater]

Well, first of all you have to be nominated. Usually a coach/AD will nominate somebody from their own school. Maybe he wasn't nominated...? Another part of it is this whole application. Whoever submits you for consideration has to come up with letters and a whole pile of academic, athletic and character recommendations. It's a whole process, and I believe there are plenty of kids who don't get nominated, don't have the academic/character requirements (not Troy's issue), or maybe the application for somebody else is just higher quality.

As for track, TA did win the sprints in Class A, but his times weren't THAT good. Usually in track you've got somebody breaking all class records, and they're the ones getting the Gatorade POY.

[js1010]

How many GPOY do we have now? I know Coy Steel (WY) was and I think Tommy Mellott (MT) and Derek Snell (AK) were both as well right?

[thefrank1]

Ifanse was Washington's GPOY.

[TomCat88]

How many GPOY do we have now? I know Coy Steel (WY) was and I think Tommy Mellott (MT) and Derek Snell (AK) were both as well right?

Five. Ifanse.

[GoCats18]

Great job Taco. Going to a fun one to watch.

[Camo_Cat]

[CatFanatic]

Nicely done.

[AFCAT]

How many GPOY do we have now? I know Coy Steel (WY) was and I think Tommy Mellott (MT) and Derek Snell (AK) were both as well right?

Five. Ifanse.

Nope, six

[HelenaCat95]

[wbtfg]

Bravo!

[TomCat88]

How many GPOY do we have now? I know Coy Steel (WY) was and I think Tommy Mellott (MT) and Derek Snell (AK) were both as well right?

Five. Ifanse.

Nope, six

Garrett Coon?

[AFCAT]

How many GPOY do we have now? I know Coy Steel (WY) was and I think Tommy Mellott (MT) and Derek Snell (AK) were both as well right?

Five. Ifanse.

Nope, six

Garrett Coon?

Yup.

[js1010]

How many GPOY do we have now? I know Coy Steel (WY) was and I think Tommy Mellott (MT) and Derek Snell (AK) were both as well right?

Five. Ifanse.

I was thinking Ifanse was but then I thought "Na, no way the Washington Player of the Year would go FCS, they'd obviously go to the Cougs or Huskies". What an amazing job of recruiting that was.

[kwcat]

How many GPOY do we have now? I know Coy Steel (WY) was and I think Tommy Mellott (MT) and Derek Snell (AK) were both as well right?

Five. Ifanse.

I was thinking Ifanse was but then I thought "Na, no way the Washington Player of the Year would go FCS, they'd obviously go to the Cougs or Huskies". What an amazing job of recruiting that was.

I think Isaiah had some bigger offers come his way the last week of signing. But stuck with his word. I know everybody has an option to look out for themselves according to the masses. I sure admire that in a player though.

[BobcatDel]

Well, first of all you have to be nominated. Usually a coach/AD will nominate somebody from their own school. Maybe he wasn't nominated...? Another part of it is this whole application. Whoever submits you for consideration has to come up with letters and a whole pile of academic, athletic and character recommendations. It's a whole process, and I believe there are plenty of kids who don't get nominated, don't have the academic/character requirements (not Troy's issue), or maybe the application for somebody else is just higher quality.

As for track, TA did win the sprints in Class A, but his times weren't THAT good. Usually in track you've got somebody breaking all class records, and they're the ones getting the Gatorade POY.

Geeez....times not that good? Just curious what you consider "that good". Ha! He did have 8 races under 11 seconds in the 100m that year. For the year he finished 2nd best in the state at 10.88 vs. the Nelson kid from CMR who finished at 10.71. And in 200m he was only 22.1 sec....finishing 4th best in the state.

So yep, agree that he was not the right selection for GPY for track.... but I think those are pretty good times. I would even call them "THAT GOOD". Guess I've never seen anything but the backside "butt end" of anyone I raced even in my "speed years" so maybe my judgement is impaired.