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Recent Menlo School graduate Sophia Jones was named Gatorade California Girls Soccer Player of the Year, which was announced on Thursday morning. She becomes the first player from the school to receive the honor. In addition, she is one of three finalists for the Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year, the most prestigious award in high school sports.
Jones, who will be playing at Duke University in the fall, was able to play her senior season at Menlo after her commitment to the U.S. national Under-17 team was complete. She appeared in the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Uruguay last summer.
“I am so humbled to be recognized and to represent California. There are so many amazing high school players, including club and WNT teammates whom I admire greatly. To be recognized by Gatorade leaves me kind of speechless,” Jones said
The 5-foot-6 midfielder led the Knights to a 20-2-2 record and the Central Coast Section Division I tournament championship during the winter. Jones recorded 18 goals and 16 assists despite missing the final two games of the season while training with the U.S. Soccer Under-20 Women’s National Team. Jones was named the 2018 United Soccer Coaches Youth Girls National Player of the Year for her performance with her club team.
“Sophie is a leader and leads by example,” Priory coach Henry Arredondo said. “She is technically gifted and makes the game easy for everyone on her team. She is a magician with the ball at her feet, and her excellent soccer IQ makes her that much more dangerous.”
Arredondo and his brother, Sacred Heart Prep girls coach Ramiro Arredondo, coach together at the club level.
Jones maintains a 3.65 GPA in the classroom and volunteers with the local Special Olympics as a youth soccer coach.
Jones joins recent Gatorade California Girls Soccer Players of the Year Isabella D’Aquila (2017-18, JSerra Catholic High School), her Under-17 teammate Kennedy Wesley (2016-17, Valley Christian High School), who is headed to Stanford, Taylor Ziemer (2015-16 & 2014-15, Montgomery High School) and MacKenzie Cerda (2013-14, Edison High School) among the state’s list of former award winners.
The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Jones as California’s best high school girls soccer player.
Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year award to be announced later this month, Jones joins an elite alumni association of past state soccer award-winners, including Alexi Lalas (1987-88, Cranbrook High School, Michigan), Steve Cherundolo (1996-97, Mt. Carmel High School, California), Abby Wambach (1997-98, Our Lady of Mercy School for Young Women, New York), Heather O’Reilly (2001-02, 2002-03, East Brunswick High School, New Jersey), Matt Besler (2004-05, Blue Valley West High School, Kansas), Jack Harrison (2013-14, Berkshire High School, Massachusetts) and Mallory Pugh (2014-15, Mountain Vista High School, Colorado).
As a part of Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Jones has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of her choosing. She is also eligible to submit an essay to win one of 12 $10,000 spotlight grants for the organization of choice, which will be announced throughout the year.
Since the program’s inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of professional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming coaches, business owners and educators.
The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport. From the 12 national winners, one male and one female athlete are each named Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year. In all, 607 athletes are honored each year.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visit Gatorade.com/POY, on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow the program on Twitter at twitter.com/Gatorade.
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports