PRESS RELEASE | In its 39th year of honoring the nation's most elite high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Corbin Coombs of Organ Mountain High School is the 2023-24 Gatorade New Mexico Boys Track & Field Player of the Year. Coombs is the first Gatorade New Mexico Boys Track & Field Player of the Year to be chosen from Organ Mountain High School.
The award, which celebrates the nation's top high school athletes for excellence on the field, in the classroom and in the community, distinguishes Coombs as New Mexico's best high school boys track & field player. From CEOs and coaches to star athletes, Gatorade Player of the Year winners showcase the power of sport, touting an all-star group of alumni that includes Alan Webb (2000-01, South Lakes High School, Va.), Kerron Clement (2002-03, Laporte High School, Texas) and Grant Fisher (2014-15 & 2013-14, Grand Blanc High School, Mich.).
The 6-foot, 150-pound junior distance talent swept the 800- and 1600-meter events at the Class 5A state meet this past season, leading the Knights to third place as a team. Coombs also earned All-American honors with a secondplace finish in the 2-mile at Nike Outdoor Nationals with a personal-best time of 8:53.44, which ranked No. 13 nationally among boys prep competitors this spring. He PR'd in the mile in May by taking eighth at the national HOKA Festival of Miles in 4:04.48. His 1600 clocking of 4:06.17 at states set a new class record and ranked No. 17 nationally. He also ran the anchor leg for Organ Mountain's class-record-setting 4x800 relay (7:52.91) foursome at the state meet.
Coombs has performed extensive humanitarian efforts as part of multiple service expeditions to Uganda and Guatemala, helping to build schools in both countries and a medical clinic in the latter. He has also fundraised for clean water reforms in those nations. He has volunteered locally assisting with Senior Olympics road races and track events, and has donated his time as a student coach at a youth track and field camp. He also attends the LDS Seminary during the academic year.
Coombs has maintained a 4.10 weighted GPA in the classroom. He will begin his senior year of high school this 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.
Coombs joins recent Gatorade New Mexico Boys Track & Field Players of the Year Tanner Montano (2022-23, La Cueva High School), Kayden Gonzalez (2021-22, Farmington High School), Luke Wysong (2020-21, Cleveland High School) and Teagun Glenn (2019-20, Albuquerque Academy), 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 $4.9
million in grants to winners across more than 1,900 organizations.
