Sophie Jones named Gatorade National Girls Player of the Year
CHICAGO (Via Gatorade) — Sophie Jones of Menlo School in California has been named the 2018-19 Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year.
She becomes the first female athlete from the Bay Area to win the national award in any sport since Ashton Purvis (track and field) of Oakland in 2009-10. The award was presented to her on Wednesday morning by seven-time NFL Pro Bowl quarterback and Super Bowl XXIX MVP Steve Young.
In addition to the National honor, Jones was named the 2018-19 Gatorade California Girls Soccer Player of the Year. Jones is the first Gatorade California Girls Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Menlo School.
The 5-foot-6 senior midfielder led the Knights to a 20-2-2 record and the Central Coast Section Division I sectional tournament championship this past season. 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. The 2018 United Soccer Coaches Youth Girls National Player of the Year for her performance with her club team, she played in the 2018 FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Uruguay.
Jones has volunteered locally with the Special Olympics and as a youth soccer coach. “Sophie is a leader and leads by example,” said Henry Arredondo, head coach of Woodside Priory School. “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.”
Jones has maintained a 3.65 GPA in the classroom. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to play soccer on scholarship at Duke University 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. 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.
Jones joins recent Gatorade California Girls Soccer Players of the Year Isabella D’Aquila (2017-18, JSerra Catholic High School), Kennedy Wesley (2016-17, Valley Christian High School), 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.
As a part of Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Jones also 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 twelve $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.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visit www.Gatorade.com/POY, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Gatorade.
