Claire Constant wins Gatorade Virginia Girls Soccer Player of the Year
CHICAGO (Via Gatorade) — In its 33rd year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, today announced Claire Constant of T.C. Williams High School as its 2017-18 Gatorade Virginia Girls Soccer Player of the Year. Constant, the first Gatorade Virginia Girls Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from T.C. Williams High School, has earned the award for a second straight year.
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 Constant as Virginia’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 in June, Constant joins an elite alumni association of past state soccer award-winners, including Alexi Lalas (1987-88, Cranbrook HS, Mich.), Steve Cherundolo (1996-97, Mt. Carmel HS, Calif.), Abby Wambach (1997-98, Our Lady of Mercy, N.Y.), Heather O’Reilly (2001-02, 2002-03, East Brunswick HS, N.J.), Matt Besler (2004-05, Blue Valley West HS, Kans.), Jack Harrison (2013-14, Berkshire HS, Mass.), and Mallory Pugh (2014-15, Mountain Vista HS, Colo.).
+READ: U.S. U-15 Girls National Team earns win and draw vs. Netherlands
The state’s returning Gatorade Player of the Year, the 5-foot-8 senior forward scored 22 goals and passed for 13 assists this past season, leading the Titans (18-2) to the Class 6 Region C tournament semifinals. A two-time First Team All-State selection, Constant has participated in a training camp with the U.S. Soccer Under-20 Women’s Soccer Team. She is rated as the No. 37 recruit in the Class of 2018 by TopDrawerSoccer.com.
Constant has volunteered locally for the Haiti Micah Project, a non-profit that feeds and educates impoverished children in Haiti. She has also donated her time as a youth soccer coach. “Claire Constant is very fast, very technical and has a great shot,” said Ruben Bolognesi, head coach of Hayfield High. “She is almost impossible to contain.”
Constant has maintained a 3.31 GPA in the classroom. She has signed a national letter of intent to play soccer on scholarship at the University of Virginia this fall.
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. The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which work with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.
As a Gatorade Player of the Year, Constant will be able to select a national or local youth sports organization to receive a grant as part of the Gatorade Play It Forward program. Every Gatorade Player of the Year state winner receives a $1,000 grant to donate and will have the opportunity to enter for an additional $10,000 spotlight grant by writing a brief essay explaining why their selected organization deserves additional support. 12 spotlight grants – one for each sport – will be announced throughout the year.
