Kaili Gregory named Gatorade D.C. Girls Soccer Player of the Year

CHICAGO (Via Gatorade) — In its 31st year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports, today announced Kaili Gregory of Woodrow Wilson High School as its 2015-16 Gatorade District of Columbia Girls Soccer Player of the Year. Gregory is the first Gatorade District of Columbia Girls Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Woodrow Wilson High School.

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 Gregory as District of Columbia’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 May, Gregory joins an elite alumni association of past state award-winners in 12 sports, including Abby Wambach (1997-98, Our Lady of Mercy, N.Y.), Derek Jeter (1991-92, Kalamazoo HS, Mich.), Candace Parker (2001-02, Naperville Central HS, Ill.), Alexi Lalas (1987-88, Cranbrook HS, Mich.), Heather O’Reilly (2001-02, East Brunswick HS, N.J.) and Mark Sanchez (2004-05, Mission Viejo HS, Calif.).

+Read: Gatorade State Girls Soccer Players of the Year announced for fall 2015

The 5-foot-9 senior defender led the Tigers to a 15-0-5 record and the District of Columbia State Athletic Association tournament championship this past season. Gregory scored seven goals, passed for four assists and led a defense that allowed just nine goals in 20 games, including shutouts in three tournament games. A Washington Post Second Team All-Met selection, she was the DCSAA State Player of the Year.

Gregory has maintained a weighted 4.38 GPA in the classroom. An AP Scholar with distinction, she has volunteered locally with the Human Rights Club at Wilson High.

“Kaili Gregory is a fantastic leader, an excellent defender, a gritty competitor and acts as a coach on the field,” said Barney Joseph, one of Gregory’s club coaches with the Bethesda Soccer Club. “She is exceptional out of the air which allows her to be dangerous on set pieces.”

Gregory has verbally committed to attend Cornell University, where she will play soccer beginning 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 high school sports leadership team in partnership with USA TODAY High School Sports, 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.

Gregory joins recent Gatorade District of Columbia Girls Soccer Players of the Year Marta Sniezek (2014-15, National Cathedral School), Maddie Kulik (2013-14, Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School), Emily Hester (2012-13, National Cathedral School), Kara Wilson (2011-12 & 2010–11, Sidwell Friends School), Taylor Bryant (2009-10, Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School), Bailey Bodell (2008–09, St. John’s College High School), and Tiffany McCarty (2007-08 & 2006-07, St. John’s College High School) among the state’s list of former award winners.