On the football field and on the baseball diamond, Wilsonville’s Mark Wiepert wore the Wildcats’ “W” proudly.

But the Wildcats’ opponents were worried about another letter. They were certain that, at any moment, Wiepert would rip open his shirt and display Superman’s big, red “S.”

As a senior, Wiepert was nothing short of super in the Wilsonville football team’s blowout win in the Class 5A state championship. And in baseball season, Wiepert leapt over records in a single bound as the Wildcats racked up 29 straight wins and reached the Class 5A state semifinals.

For all those reasons and many more, Mark Wiepert has been named 2024-25 Athlete of the Year for Wilsonville High School. The Athlete of the Year is awarded to the top graduated senior athlete – male or female – from Wilsonville High School.

 

Football

By the end of his senior season, Wiepert was almost universally recognized as the best player in the state, leading the Wildcats to a 5A state championship and being named Northwest Oregon Conference Offensive Player of the Year, MaxPreps Oregon Football Player of the Year, Class 5A Offensive Player of the Year and Gatorade Oregon Football Player of the Year.

But that’s not how his year started.

Wiepert, 18 and a University of Oregon commit for football, began his year as a varsity rookie at quarterback, a position he hadn’t played since his freshman season.

Indeed, in his first varsity start at QB, Wiepert hit on just 2 of 12 first-half throws as the Wildcats fell behind Nelson 20-13 after two quarters.

“I had an abysmal first half … and I was, honestly, pretty embarrassed,” Wiepert said. “I went in at halftime and was like, ‘Oh. I never, never want to feel this again.’”

From that moment on, Wiepert – always a hard worker – worked even harder, studied even harder and began to get better – and quickly. He hit 9 of 11 throws in the second half to beat Nelson, threw for nearly 400 yards in Week Two and led the Wildcats to six straight wins and a 5A title at the end of the year.

By the end of the season, Wiepert threw for 3,811 yards and 51 touchdowns on 60% passing with just nine interceptions. He also led Wilsonville in rushing with 704 yards and another 12 TDs.

Wilsonville coach Adam Guenther, it turns out, was not surprised by any of Wiepert’s success. He saw Wiepert lead the Wildcats in tackles in each of the two previous seasons and win 5A Defensive Player of the Year honors as a junior.

“We always try to stress to our guys ‘Every time you step on the field, you want to improve.’ But (Wiepert) took that to the whole next level,” Guenther said. “If you look to see where he was at the beginning of the school year, the jamboree and the scrimmage, to where he ended in that state championship game, you saw a complete metamorphosis at quarterback.”

As a snapshot of Wiepert’s improvement, here’s a look at what he accomplished in the Cats’ 56-35 rout of Mountain View in the 5A championship. Wiepert completed 17 of 26 passes for 271 yards and three touchdowns, including completions of 47, 45, 39, 24 and 24 yards. He carried the ball 18 times for 169 yards and five touchdowns, including runs of 46, 14, 13, 12, 11 and 10 yards.

Wiepert’s eight total touchdowns set a new 11-man record in a state title game. He also led his team in tackles with six solo stops and returned a kickoff 37 yards to set up a third-quarter touchdown.

And he did all of that in less than three quarters as the Wildcats let off the accelerator down the stretch.

“I definitely put in a lot more work outside of practice, and I was more intent on watching film because I was pretty set that I was at least going to give it everything I got,” Wiepert said. “I don’t really believe in giving anything less than my best, so I kind of stepped into that.”

“His intellectual approach to the game became very prevalent down the stretch,” Guenther said. “We kept telling him ‘It’s our philosophy, but it’s your offense … and he took that to heart. He took a lot of control of the offense, especially down the stretch.”

Beyond Wiepert’s exploits on the field, however, Guenther was most impressed with his QB’s leadership and citizenship.

“I said it after the state championship game – I hope every coach has the opportunity to coach a kid like him. On a football field, he can do what he wants to do. On the baseball diamond, he can do what he wants to do,” Guenther said. “But he’s also the type of kid you want your daughter to marry. His athletic ability is always apparent … but what people don’t see is how hard he works. They don’t see how he treats people in the halls. He’s just a good all-around person.”

Baseball

As good as he was in football, Wiepert was even better known as a baseball player before his senior season. Previously a baseball commit to Oregon State, Wiepert was a first-team all-state pick in 2024 and came back even better in ’25.

Let’s start with the numbers. Wiepert, a catcher, batted .554 as a senior with six homers, four triples, 10 doubles, 37 runs scored and 60 RBIs in just 30 games and 90 at-bats. He broke school records for batting average, hits (51), on-base percentage (.613), RBIs, slugging percentage (.833) and total bases (87).

Further, Wilsonville coach Jason Rasco can’t prove it, but he believes that Wiepert’s OPS (on-base plus slugging) percentage of 1.558 is the highest in school history and likely one of the highest in state history.

Oh yeah, he also led the Wildcats to 29 straight wins and the No. 1 ranking in the state before they got derailed in the state semifinals by eventual 5A champion Summit.

“It was pretty unreal to be a part of and I had a heck of a fun time doing it,” Wiepert said of his senior season and the Cats’ streak. “Winning 29 games in a row in baseball is pretty ridiculous and doesn’t happen very often.”

“He just obliterated his own RBI record this year,” Rasco said. “It was like video game numbers. Stuff that he did was just unreal.”

While Wiepert’s offensive numbers grabbed the biggest headlines, that wasn’t the first attribute that made Rasco sit up and take notice.

“Mark’s probably the best athlete, or top two or three, that Wilsonville has ever seen,” said Rasco, who’s been in the district for more than 20 years. “His arm is (amazing). He throws 90, 91, 92 (miles per hour) across the diamond. … And that arm will always be there. If he decides in a year or two that he wants to come back and try to play baseball, he’s athletic enough and has enough understanding of the game that he’ll be able to jump back in.”

The funny thing is, the Wildcats didn’t really know how good they’d turn out to be in 2025. They graduated a talented, influential group of seniors the previous spring and welcomed Rasco for his first year as head coach after Bryn Card resigned.

“There were no expectations,” Wiepert said. “There was just so much uncertainty going into it. But once we had the team, once we had the coaches, it was full go. And Rasco did a great job of shifting focus a little bit, but still maintaining the standard and even raising the standard as a program.”

Regardless of player or coach turnover, the Wildcats were dynamite in 2025. They went 10-0 in non-league play (including four wins against 6A teams), went 16-0 in the tough Northwest Oregon Conference, then won their first two playoff games before falling to Summit.

“It speaks to the fundamentals of the team and how we were able to incorporate routine and never let the moment get too big,” Wiepert said. “And I think we just played for each other above it all.”

For Rasco, Wiepert was the key to it all.

“It was like, ‘Hey. I just want you to go out and be an athlete,’” Rasco said. “We’re not going to put a ton of constraints on you. Just go do your thing. We just want to see the best version of you and I think that’s what we ended up getting this year.”

That said, the Wildcats’ stellar season came to a stunning end in their 9-2 loss to Summit in the semis.

“You can’t even be upset about that final game,” Wiepert said. “You can be bummed that the season’s over … but we’d all played baseball long enough to know that that kind of a game is bound to happen. If you play baseball long enough, that’s how it goes sometimes.”

As disappointing as the Cats’ finale was, none of it detracted from Wiepert’s season or his stellar character.

“First and foremost, he’s just a great kid,” Rasco said. “He’s the role model, the guy that you love, helping to lead your program who makes all the right choices in and out of the classroom.”

“I just think of the team that we had and how much fun it was to come out and work hard every day and get to be with your buddies,” Wiepert added.