In an era when young athletes are told to specialize early or get left behind, Wilsonville High School’s two Athletes of the Year for 2025-26 offer a quiet counterargument. Both built their resumes the old-fashioned way: by playing more than one sport, and excelling at all of them.
Kaia Hix, a graduated senior, spent her fall in goal for the Wilsonville girls soccer team and her winter running the point for the basketball team — and her teams simply did not lose in conference play. As goalkeeper, she backstopped the Wildcats to an unbeaten Northwest Oregon Conference championship and a run to the Class 5A state semifinals, earning all-NWOC honorable mention along the way. Then she traded gloves for a jersey number on the hardwood, starting at guard for a basketball team that also went unbeaten through the NWOC and reached the 5A state tournament.
Think about that combination for a second. Goalkeeper and point guard are arguably the two highest-pressure positions in their respective sports — both demand constant communication, snap decision-making, and the willingness to own mistakes in front of everyone. It’s no coincidence the same athlete thrived in both.
Liam Wilde, her co-honoree, owned the other two seasons of the school year. In the fall, the senior won the NWOC district cross country title and placed 12th at the state meet. In the spring, he doubled up at the conference track championships, winning NWOC titles in both the 1,500 and 3,000 meters, then backed it up at the Class 5A state meet with a seventh-place finish in the 1,500 and 11th in the 3,000.
Wilsonville’s athletic year as a whole was driven by a strong senior class, and Hix and Wilde sat at the top of it. Their selection also reflects something coaches at every level keep repeating, even as club sports and year-round single-sport calendars pull kids the other way: multi-sport athletes tend to be more durable, more adaptable, and more competitive. Research on athletic development has consistently linked early specialization to higher injury and burnout rates, while multi-sport athletes arrive at the next level with broader movement skills and fresher legs.
Both athletes now graduate, leaving the Wildcats with two significant holes to fill — and underclassmen with a pretty clear blueprint for what the school’s highest athletic honor looks like: show up for more than one team, compete for championships in all of them, and let the trophies sort themselves out.
Source: Wilsonville Spokesman
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