The Central Times Editorial Board has named senior football and track and field athlete Maverick Ohle as its male Athlete of the Year. A state champion in discus as well as a Division I football commit, Ohle’s athletic skills uniquely span across two sports.
“He’s got a real gift for just being able to take his elite mindset and dedication and filter it into a really tangible way for everyone,” said boys track and field head coach Steve Stack. “Whether you’re a thrower, a distance runner, a vaulter or a sprinter, he’s a huge motivator.”
A three-year defensive starter in football as well as a two-year captain, Ohle was chosen due to his leadership abilities as well as his athletic successes.
“I think the biggest thing with Maverick is when we played other teams he was a guy that other teams had to spend all week figuring out how to block,” head football coach Mike Ulreich said. “He’s just very physical at the point of attack.”
Ohle is a defensive end, and throws in the shotput and discus for track and field. Ohle won the 2023 IHSA state championship in discus with a throw of 183 feet 1 inch. Ohle’s personal record in the discus is 183 feet 9 inches. A few weeks later, he placed 13th at the Nike Outdoor Nationals meet in discus.
Ohle’s first love was weightlifting, winning two junior National Championships before he came to Central as a freshman. Ohle’s dad, a former competitor weightlifter, first inspired him to pick up the sport as a young child.
“Weightlifting is what makes me, me,” Ohle said. “I’m forever grateful to my dad for introducing it to me. I love being in the gym. I love battling with myself, battling with the bar. I love showing other people how to do the same thing.”
One of Ohle’s personal ventures is founding Powerhouse Barbell Club, a weightlifting gym in Bolingbrook. Many of his clients are fellow Central athletes.
“Some of our better guys not only lift with us in the morning, but they’ll go to his gym,” Ulreich said. “He’s very technical. If you want to learn how to power clean, [a type of lift], he’s the guy to go see. He is the one person that knows how to teach the mechanics and all that goes with it.”
Ohle’s personal bests in weightlifting include: a 630-pound squat, 415-pound bench press, 415-pound jerk, 400-pound power clean and a 550-pound front squat.
“He is the strongest person we’ve ever had at every single lift,” Ulreich said.
Other than his state championship, one of Ohle’s proudest achievements was being named an All-State defensive lineman by the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association this past season.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever have a kid that is as goal oriented,” Ulreich said. “When he says he’s going to do something, he’s going to do it. I would not put it past anything he puts his mind to and says that he has a goal that he wants to accomplish.”
A rare four-year varsity football player, Ohle mostly played special teams his freshman year before starting on defense for his remaining three years.
In week one of the 2023 season, Hinsdale Central was driving down the field. Ohle hit the quarterback, but it was late, resulting in a 15 yard roughing the passer penalty. Hinsdale moved the ball 15 yards, leaving them on Central’s 20 yard line with Central up 14-10.
“As the guy who’s supposed to make the right plays and not do stupid stuff like that, it was hard to refocus,” Ohle said. “I would say ‘everybody repeat, unshakable drive, unshakable effort.’ We just kept repeating that after every play, and we ended up stopping them on fourth down. Getting the guys to buy into that mentality was very memorable.”
Past the physical nature of football, Ohle considers throwing to be a far more technical sport.
“I struggle with [the technicality] and I struggle with the mental side,” Ohle said. “I’ve had to learn a lot. I’ve had to learn a lot about in-tempo practice, never giving up and refocusing.”
Ohle’s state championship in discus was no fluke. In his freshman year he placed fifth at state, and in his sophomore year he placed second.
“I think Mav is just phenomenal at his awareness,” Stack said. “He has such a good insight on his own athletic abilities. Especially in the ring, he’ll throw the shot or the disc and he’ll walk out of the ring and be like, ‘well, if I made this one small change, this would happen’ and then he’ll step back into the ring then it’ll go exactly that way.”
Although not a captain on the team, Ohle’s athletic pedigree leads him to be a natural leader among his fellow teammates.
“He’s got a real gift for just being able to take his elite mindset and dedication and filter it into a really tangible way for everyone,” Stack said.
Ohle’s performance this season has been strong, although he has not managed to beat his previous record in the discus, falling about 13 feet short.
“It was a big emphasis last year that I wanted to win state and to keep going up in the state rankings,” Ohle said. “I didn’t really care about how far I threw, it was just about did I win or not. I just put a lot of pressure on myself to do it. So when I did it, it was just like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.”
Ohle is committed to Ohio University for football, and does not plan to continue throwing in college.
Nolan Shen contributed to this story
