The REPORTER
Noblesville’s Cole Thompson was named the 2023-24 Gatorade Indiana Boys Soccer Player of the Year last week. Thompson is the third straight Gatorade Indiana Boys Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Noblesville High School.
The 6-foot-1, 165-pound senior goalkeeper led the Millers to an 18-0-5 record and a third straight Class 3A state championship this past season. Thompson conceded 12 goals and recorded 10 shutouts, including a 2-0 blanking of Cathedral High in the state title game. The Indiana Soccer Coaches Association Player of the Year, “Mr. Soccer,” he saved 8 of 18 penalty shots on the season and was the winning goalie in three consecutive postseason shootouts leading up to the championship match.
Thompson completed an internship at the Mojo Up Sports Complex last fall, and he has volunteered locally with Fueled for School, a local food distribution initiative, as well as with Serve Noblesville. “Cole was crucial to Noblesville’s incredible defense and championship this year,” said David Stroup, head coach of Southport High School. “Saving nearly half of the penalties made Noblesville feel unstoppable. He’s a good distributor and decent with his feet, which is pretty rare in high school keepers.”
Thompson has maintained a 3.96 grade-point average in the classroom. He has signed a national letter of intent to play soccer on scholarship at Oakland University in Michigan this fall.
Thompson joins recent Gatorade Indiana Boys Soccer Players of the Year Sam Divis (2022-23, Noblesville High School), Palmer Ault (2021-22, Noblesville High School), Zack Bowser (2020-21, Chesterton High School) and Chris Freeman (2019-20, Zionsville Community 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 $4.9 million in grants to winners across more than 1,900 organizations.