CHICAGO (February 13, 2025) — In its 40th year of honoring the nation’s most elite high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Tommy Latham of Marist School is the 2024-25 Gatorade Georgia Boys Cross Country Player of the Year. Latham is the second Gatorade Georgia Boys Cross Country Player of the Year to be chosen from Marist School.
Gatorade Player of the Year is the top honor in high school sports, celebrating the nation’s best high school athletes for their success on the field, in the classroom and in the community. The award distinguishes Latham as Georgia's best high school boys cross country athlete, and he joins an impressive group of alumni that spans CEOs, coaches and star athletes such as Lukas Verzbicas (2009-10 & 2010-11, Carl Sandburg High School, Illinois), Edward Cheserek (2012-13, St. Benedict's Preparatory School, New Jersey) and Daniel Simmons (2022-23 & 2023-24, American Fork High School, Utah).
The state’s two-time returning Gatorade Player of the Year, the 5-foot-10, 145-pound senior won his third straight GHSA state title this past season with a time of 15:33.2, leading the Eagles to second place as a team. A four-time All-State selection, Latham took fourth at the national NXN Final to earn First Team All-America honors. He clocked a 5K season-best of 14:43.67 last fall when he took bronze at the Nike Cross Southeast Regional.
A practiced piano player and guitar enthusiast, Latham has volunteered locally on behalf of Meals by Grace, providing meals to North Georgia children and families in need. He also served as a team chaplain this past season, a role in which he donated his time to Heads Up For Harry, an organization that raises awareness about mental health challenges. “Tommy Latham continues to climb the list of the state’s all-time distance talents as his collection of postseason hardware stacks up,” said Rich Gonzalez of PrepCalTrack. “With eight individual state titles across two sports (track and cross country), his fourth-place finish at NXN is the best showing ever by a Peach State runner at either of the two major national championship meets.”
Latham has maintained a weighted 3.80 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a written letter of athletic aid to run at the University of North Carolina this fall.
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.
Three-time winner Latham joins recent Gatorade Georgia Boys Cross Country Players of the Year Ethan Ashley (2021-22, Denmark High School) and Kamari Miller (2020-21, Marietta High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.
As part of Gatorade’s commitment to breaking down barriers in 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.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com or follow us on social media on Instagram at instagram.com/Gatorade, Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY and X(Twitter) at x.com/Gatorade.
