Gulfport soccer’s Kate Smith named Gatorade Player of the Year

Big time players make big time plays in big time games. There’s no bigger game than the 6A state championship, no bigger play than the game winning goal and now no bigger player than Gulfport’s Kate Smith, your Gatorade girls soccer player of the year for Mississippi.

Four months after shoving one upper 90 and leading the Lady Admirals to their second straight 6A state championship, the ultimate team award, as second half hero Kate Smith is now the recipient of the ultimate individual award. “This morning I woke up and it was an email, and it was like congrats! You’re the Gatorade Player of the Year! And I was like…cause my friend from Alabama – she got it. And she had been posting it and I was like oh, this is so exciting for her. And then I went and looked at my email because I got a notification and I was like, oh wait!”

Before long those emails turned into calls and texts. “Several from my grandmother, very many from my grandmother.”

Well deserved praise and the cherry on top of a junior season for the ages. “We have this big family group chat, and they’re like blowing up texts in there and my Dad’s called me four times today to say I’m so proud of you and just, even all my friends that don’t know much about soccer, they’re all texting me, this is awesome!”

You don’t have to know much about soccer to know that the one they call Lil’ Smith is a beast. This season, the 5’4” forward scored 35 goals and assisted on 17 more as a part of Gulfport’s run to a 22-1-2 overall record and a 6-0 mark in Region 8 class 6A games. Head Coach Chris Pryor said, “They call district opponents. They call playoff opponents, saying hey, what you do you think about this player? So obviously, the people that we competed against have something positive to say and a mutual respect, so that in itself sets Gatorade Player of the Year a cut above the rest.”

“Most definitely the best award that I’ve ever seen.”

Already an Ole Miss commit, Smith is the first Gulfport girls soccer player to be honored by Gatorade since Kelsey Myrick in 2008, the same year the Lady Admirals won their first gold ball.

Then along comes Smith to help bring Gulfport its second and third state crowns. “I mean growing up, you always hear Coach Myrick – she was really good. She was Gatorade Player of the Year. That’s how they talk about her. That’s how they say that she’s good. And so just getting that and being able to join her in the club and people can now say that, that’s just really cool.”

“They’ve heard me talk about Coach Myrick and the 08’s for so long, it’s almost like hearing about – at the national team level – the 99’s and that type of thing, but to actually get there and do it is a completely different story. Everyone is shooting for the same thing. Everyone wants a state title. But like I was telling her and the family, if it’s rare to win a state title, it’s probably more rare to get Gatorade Player of the Year.”

A devoted member of her church youth group, Smith has volunteered locally on behalf of a food bank, coastal cleanup initiatives, and youth soccer camps all while maintaining a 3.83 GPA in the classroom.