Gatorade Top National Football Player is from Missouri

Each year Gatorade honors the top high school player for several sports in each state and nationally. This year, for the first time, Missouri has produced the top football player in the country.

The Gatorade National Football Spotlight Shines on the Show-Me State

Jackson Cantwell of Nixa, Missouri, has nabbed the national Gatorade football honor for 2025/26. Spoiler alert --Jackson could very well nab a second Gatorade national award for track and field. Cantwell won the Missouri Gatorade state award for track and field as a sophomore during the 2023/24 season. That year he set the national high school shot put record. He’s already won a national track and field championship in the shot put as a junior in the 2024/25 season. Yes there have been multiple-sport winners previously (usually a cross country/track and field double).

A five star football recruit, he played offensive tackle at Nixa high school, who lost in the Class 6 State Championship Game to Lee’s Summit. Cantwell has committed to play football at the University of Miami next fall. Jackson is the first Missouri high school football player to garner the national football award.

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Previously Missouri has produced Gatorade National high school basketball players of the year. In 2011 Bradley Beal won from Chaminade. 2016 saw Chaminade’s Jayson Tatum took home the national honor, and the next year, in 2017 Michael Porter Jr. won the national prize from Father Tolton high in Columbia, Mo. Last year Cor Jesu’s Maddie DiMaria won the girls soccer national player award.