RICHMOND, VA – (Thursday, May 29, 2014) – The Richmond Kickers are pleased to announce that Katie Cousins has been named the 2013-14 Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year. Recognized for her athletic excellence, as well as academic achievement and exemplary character on and off the field as a junior at Jefferson Forest High School, Cousins led the Cavaliers to a 13-1 regular season record, scoring eight goals and five assists during the 2013-14 campaign. Elected from the pool of National Player of the Year honorees, Cousins is also a Finalist for the Gatorade Female Athlete of the Year award.
“This is a tremendous honor for a young player who has worked hard over the last several years to develop her game,” commented Rob Ukrop, Richmond Kickers U18 Girls Elite Head Coach. “Katie has a unique skill set that allows her to blend in with her teammates to inspire her team to be better in training and in games. She thinks like a professional player in terms of her controlled tempo and decision-making and I truly believe has the potential to be a future game-changer with the U.S. Women’s National Team.”
A member of the U.S. U18 Women’s National Team, Cousins is a true U17 player who currently plays an age group up with the Richmond Kickers U18 Elite and will compete on the newly formed U18 Richmond United ECNL team next season. Cousins was recently named to the NSCAA 2013 Youth Girls All-American team and is ranked first in the nation by Topdrawersoccer.com. The Lynchburg, Virginia native volunteers on behalf of Relay for Life, Autism Awareness and local youth soccer camps and has verbally committed to play soccer on an athletic scholarship at the University of Tennessee upon graduation.
The Gatorade Player of the Year award was established in 1985 to recognize and celebrate the nation’s most outstanding high school talents for their athletic achievement, academic excellence and exemplary character. Now in its third decade, the Gatorade Player of the Year award has become one of the most prestigious accolades in high school sports.
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. This year celebrates the program’s 29th anniversary. In that time, Gatorade has honored nearly 13,000 State Players of the Year and 260 National Players of the Year, including many of today’s top professional athletes, such as Peyton Manning, Lisa Leslie, Candace Parker, Kerri Walsh, Derek Jeter, and Emmitt Smith. For more information, visit www.gatorade.com/poy.
