Chicago Red
Stars' Mallory Swanson Surprises Winner with Honor
SOUTHLAKE, Texas, June 30,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In its 38th year of
honoring the nation's most elite high school athletes, Gatorade
today announced Kennedy Fuller of
Carroll High School in Southlake, Texas is the 2022-23 Gatorade
National Girls Soccer Player of the Year. Fuller won the
prestigious award for her accomplishments on and off the field,
joining an impressive group of former Gatorade National Girls
Soccer Players of the Year who have combined for more than 17 gold
medals and nine National Championships.
Chicago Red Stars forward
Mallory Swanson virtually surprised
Fuller with the news, while her family, coaches and teammates
showed up with the trophy at school. Check out a video of the
announcement here.
The Gatorade Player of the Year award recognizes athletes not
just for their excellence on the playing surface, but for their
commitment in the classroom and impact in their community. Fuller
beat out nearly half a million other student-athletes who play
girls soccer nationwide, topping the list of state winners in girls
soccer who collectively boast an incredible list of
accomplishments, including 44 with signed National Letters of
Intent to play girls soccer at Division I colleges/universities and
32 with a GPA of 4.0 and above.
"Kennedy Fuller is a
once-in-a-generation talent," said J.R. Eskilson, National Analyst
for PrepSocccer.com. "In the two decades I've been scouting elite
youth players, there are only a handful of players who I would
consider to be her peer or her equal—both in terms of ability at
her age as well as projected ceiling. Fuller is the full-package:
Dynamic, driven and detail-oriented. A determined student of the
game, she used her second season in high school to one-up her
incredible debut campaign, producing one dominant display after
another. She was surrounded by some of the best talent in the
country this year and she shined, but she also made everyone around
her better. An escape artist on the dribble, a magician with her
passing and a scoring threat from anywhere on the field,
Kennedy Fuller is 'Showtime' on a
soccer pitch."
The state's returning Gatorade Player of the Year, the 5-foot-5
sophomore midfielder scored 55 goals and passed for 26 assists this
past season, leading the Dragons (26-1) to the Conference 6A state
championship game. A two-time Dallas Morning News Player of the
Year, Fuller missed her team's final three postseason games because
she was attending a training camp with the U.S. Soccer Under-16
Women's National Team. Ranked as the nation's No. 7 recruit in the
Class of 2024 by TopDrawerSoccer.com, she concluded her sophomore
year with 81 goals and 41 assists.
A member of the National Junior Honor Society and the school's
Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter, she has presented at
local elementary schools about academic excellence. She has also
volunteered on behalf of G&J Ministries, which provides
sanctuary for those in need, as well as with Count Your Blessings,
a faith-based retail store. In addition, she's donated her time as
a member of the White Chapel Church Youth Group.
Fuller has maintained an A-minus average in the classroom. She
plans on graduating high school a year early and has made a verbal
commitment to play soccer on scholarship at the University of North Carolina beginning in the fall
of 2024.
In addition to excellence on and off the field of play, Gatorade
Players of the Year also pay it forward for the next generation. As
part of Gatorade's Play it Forward initiative, Fuller will receive
a grant to give to one of Gatorade's social impact partners –
Athlete Ally, Laureus USA, Move
United, Women's Sports Foundation and Up2Us Sports – supporting
Gatorade's ambition to fuel the future of sport.
"The sheer size and quality of the talent pool, paired with the
criteria to be outstanding on and off the field of play, is what
makes the Gatorade Player of the Year award so prestigious," said
Gatorade Portfolio president and general manager Michael Del Pozzo. "It's a testament to
Kennedy's hard work and incredible achievements that have outshined
the competition not just in her state, but the whole nation."
Each year, a selection committee evaluates the nation's top
talent to choose one state winner from each of the 50 states as
well as Washington D.C., in 12
different sports: football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross
country, boys and girls basketball, baseball, softball, boys and
girls soccer, and boys and girls track & field. In all, 608
athletes are honored each year. From the pool of state winners, one
national winner is selected in each of the 12 sports.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program,
check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visit
playeroftheyear.gatorade.com or follow us on social media on
Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY, Instagram at
instagram.com/Gatorade and Twitter at
twitter.com/Gatorade.
About The Gatorade Portfolio
The Gatorade Portfolio, a
division of PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP), is a connected performance and
wellness ecosystem built to fuel all athletes and exercisers.
Bringing together Gatorade, Fast Twitch, Propel, Evolve and Muscle
Milk, the Gatorade Portfolio is the most complete offering in the
category today, with a broad range of personalized solutions at
every stage of the athlete journey. This integrated system of
brands is built on Gatorade's 57-year history of studying athletes
and is fueling the future of athletic performance and wellness by
delivering solutions across hydration, protein, energy and all-day
nutrition to fuel consumers, no matter how or why they sweat. For
more information and a full list of product offerings, please visit
www.gatorade.com.
About PepsiCo
PepsiCo products are enjoyed by
consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200
countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more
than $86 billion in net revenue in
2022, driven by a complementary beverage and convenient foods
portfolio that includes Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade,
Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker, and SodaStream. PepsiCo's product
portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages,
including many iconic brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail
sales.
Guiding PepsiCo is our vision to Be the Global Leader in
Beverages and Convenient Foods by Winning with pep+ (PepsiCo
Positive). pep+ is our strategic end-to-end transformation that
puts sustainability and human capital at the center of how we will
create value and growth by operating within planetary boundaries
and inspiring positive change for planet and people. For more
information, visit www.pepsico.com, and follow on Twitter,
Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn @PepsiCo.
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SOURCE The Gatorade Company