FROM STAFF REPORTS

It was a complete sweep for the Spain Park Jaguars in two of the biggest soccer awards handed out at the conclusion of the 2018 soccer season after Jasmine Greene won the Gatorade Girls Soccer Player of the Year award for the state of Alabama.

Greene joins male winner and Spain Park boys soccer player Brooks Rice, who was announced the winner of the boys category a week earlier. Greene became the fifth Gatorade Alabama Girls Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Spain Park 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 Greene as Alabama’s best high school girls soccer player.

Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year award to be announced in June, Greene joins an elite alumni association of past state soccer award-winners, including Alexi Lalas, Steve Cherundolo, Abby Wambach, Heather O’Reilly, Matt Besler, Jack Harrison and Mallory Pugh.

The 5-foot-8 junior forward scored 29 goals and passed for 15 assists this past season, leading the Jaguars (17-6) to the second round of the Class 7A state tournament.

Between Greene and Rice, who is a senior, the two talented Spain Park soccer players combined for 66 goals and 27 assists between the two of them as key leaders for their respective teams.

Greene recorded nine multi-goal games and collected at least two points in 14 games.

A three-time Birmingham News All-Metro first team selection, Greene moved into a defensive role late in close games. So far through her junior season, Greene has a total of 88 goals and 42 assists at Spain Par.

She has volunteered locally helping to organize and distribute gift bags to patients at Children’s of Alabama, and she has donated her time as part of multiple community-service initiatives through her church.

“Jasmine is just about the complete package,” said rival head coach Will Patridge of Hoover High School. “She shows tremendous poise in front of and around the goal area. Jazz is so shifty and always seems to find the seams and pockets of space in the final third.”

Greene has maintained a weighted 4.11 GPA in the classroom and has made a verbal commitment to play soccer on scholarship at Furman University beginning in the fall of 2019.

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 sports and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport.

The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, 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.

Greene joins recent Gatorade Alabama Girls Soccer Players of the Year Eva Knapstein, Julia Pack (2015-16, Oak Mountain High School), Leigh Haynes, Claudia Day (2013-14, Briarwood Christian School), Toni Payne (2012-13, Oak Mountain High School), Bailee Hartnett (2011-12, Oak Mountain High School), Simone Charley (2010–11, Spain Park High School), Annalika Steyn (2009-10, Spain Park), Lauren Arnold (2008–09, Spain Park), Mary Nicholson and Victoria Frederick.

As a Gatorade Player of the Year, Greene will be able to select a national or local youth sports organization to receive a grant as part of the Gatorade Play It Forward program.

Every Gatorade Player of the Year state winner receives a $1,000 grant to donate and will have the opportunity to enter for an additional $10,000 spotlight grant by writing a brief essay explaining why their selected organization deserves additional support.

For more on the Gatorade Player of the Year program, including nomination information, a complete list of past winners and the announcement of the Gatorade National Player of the Year, visit Gatorade.com/poy.