CHICAGO — In its 29th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports, has announced Morgan Reid of Cardinal Gibbons High School as its 2013-14 Gatorade North Carolina Girls Soccer Player of the Year. Reid is the first Gatorade North Carolina Girls Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Cardinal Gibbons 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 Reid as North Carolina’s best high school girls soccer player.
Reid 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.).
The 5-foot-6 senior midfielder led the Crusaders to a 20-2-2 record as they advanced to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association quarterfinals before losing to eventual state champion Chapel Hill. Reid scored 22 goals and passed for nine assists through 21 games, missing the first two state tournament games to participate in a training camp with the U.S. Soccer Under-20 Women’s National Team. A two-time club Youth All-American selection by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, she is also a two-time Class 3A First Team All-State honoree. She entered the postseason with 56 goals and 50 assists in her prep soccer career.
Reid has maintained an A average in the classroom. A student ambassador at Cardinal Gibbons, she has volunteered locally with Adopt-A-Family, providing goods and gifts to underprivileged families, and as a youth basketball referee.
“Morgan Reid is a great player,” said Scott Summers, head coach of Hunt High. “She reads the field really well, she makes quick decisions and is very vocal.”
Reid has signed a National Letter of Intent to play soccer on an athletic 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. 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.
Reid joins recent Gatorade North Carolina Girls Soccer Players of the Year Alexis Shaffer (2012-13 & 2011-12, Green Hope), Caroline Lindquist (2010 – 11, Ravenscroft School), Mollie Pathman (2009-10 & 2008–09, Durham Academy), Nicole Danford (2007-08, Green Hope), and Nicole Panek (2006-2007, Mount Tabor) among the state’s list of former award winners.
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