Maddox Hamm competes at the 2022 Alabama State Track and Field Meet - Photo by Chris Wells
CHICAGO (June 29, 2022) - In its 37th year of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, Gatorade today
announced Maddox Hamm of Scottsboro High School is the 2021-22 Gatorade Alabama Boys Track & Field
Player of the Year. Hamm is the first Gatorade Alabama Boys Track & Field Player of the Year to be chosen from
Scottsboro 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 Hamm as Alabama's best
high school boys track & field athlete. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Track & Field
Player of the Year award to be announced in July, Hamm joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners
in 12 sports, including Lolo Jones (1997-98, Roosevelt High School, Iowa), Allyson Felix (2002-03, Los Angeles
Baptist High School, Calif.), Robert Griffin III (2006-07, Copperas Cove High School, Texas), Grant Fisher (2014-
15 & 2013-14, Grand Blanc High School, Mich.) and Candace Hill (2014-15, Rockdale County High School, Ga.).
The 5-foot-11, 170-pound junior pole-vaulter won the event at the Class 6A state meet with a clearance of 17 feet,
10 inches, helping the Wildcats to the team title. Hamm's personal-best height of 18-1 set a state record and ranked
as the nation's No. 1 clearance among prep competitors in 2022. Only five other prep athletes jumped within a foot
of Hamm this spring, and the closest cleared 17-6. Rated No. 31 in the national MileSplit 50 at the time of his
selection, he also won an indoor national title at the adidas Track National with a clearance of 18-0.5.
A member of First United Methodist Church in Scottsboro, Hamm has participated in multiple service-mission trips
with the First United Methodist Youth, during which he has volunteered in soup kitchens, food pantries, and
shelters for the needy, helping prepare and serve meals, sorting clothing and hygiene supplies, and raising
awareness for people experiencing houselessness. He has also donated his time raising funds for the Life Resource
Center, which provides services locally for the unhoused. In addition, he works part-time doing site maintenance
for a local outpatient healthcare facility. "Maddox is one-of-a-kind," said Scottsboro head coach Luke Robinson.
"Since the day he walked into track practice, he's been dedicated to being the best. Within the first couple of weeks
of practice, we realized that Maddox was going to be something special. He progressed so quickly that we were
scrambling to make sure we had enough poles for him to use. It felt like he was outgrowing poles every other week.
Maddox's record speaks for itself, but he's also one of the most humble people I've ever met."
Hamm has maintained a 3.92 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.
Hamm joins recent Gatorade Alabama Boys Track & Field Players of the Year Ethan Strand (2020-21, Vestavia Hills
High School), Josiah Harry (2019-20, Mobile Christian School), Charles Lewis (2018-19, Sparkman High School),
and Marion Humphrey (2017-18, Hoover 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, Hamm 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. Hamm 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.
