UNLV INCOMING RECRUIT MICHAELA MORRIS NAMED GATORADE NEVADA GIRLS SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Incoming UNLV women’s soccer recruit Michaela Morris has been named the 2014-15 Gatorade Nevada Girls Soccer Player of the Year, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports, announced on Thursday. Gatorade is in its 30th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, and Morris becomes the second honoree from Nevada to join the current Rebel squad, as rising junior Nicole Westover was the 2012-13 selection from Nevada.
Morris is the first player from Coronado High School to be chosen as Gatorade Nevada Girls Soccer Player of the Year, and she is now a finalist for the Gatorade National Player of the Year, which will be announced in May. The award recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field.
The 5-foot-6 senior forward scored 45 goals and passed for 18 assists this past season, leading the Cougars (16-8) to the Division I state championship game. Also the Southeast League Player of the Year, Morris battled back from a quadriceps injury to score the game-winning goal in overtime against Palo Verde High in the state semifinals. A three-time All-Southern Nevada selection and a member of the U.S. Youth Soccer Region IV Olympic Development Program team, she concluded her prep soccer career with 89 goals and 37 assists.
She has excelled in the classroom as well, maintaining a 4.6 weighted GPA in the classroom. A candidate for valedictorian of the Coronado High senior class, she has volunteered locally at the Saint Therese Center HIV Outreach Catholic ministry and has also donated her time to Make it Personal Love Bags, gifting wellness items to homeless people.
“Michaela was an extremely valuable player to that team,” said Frank Messina, head coach of Palo Verde High. “The fact that she went down with an injury during the tail end of the state semifinals and then came back in to score the game-winning goal against us is impressive.”
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.
