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Three Players Named Gatorade Girls Soccer Player of the Year

By Will Pipicelli, 06/23/22, 4:30PM EDT

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Tanum Nelson, Molly Martin & Maggie Cochran Receive Illustrious Award

Tanum Nelson, Molly Martin, and Maggie Cochran of the FC Stars 2004 ECNL Blue team have each been named their respective state’s prestigious Gatorade Girls Soccer Player of the Year. 

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 each individual as their state’s best high school girls soccer player. Nelson won the award in Vermont and Martin won in Massachusetts. Cochran won Maine’s Girls Gatorade Soccer Player of the Year award for the second consecutive year. 

“I am incredibly proud of all three of these girls,” said  FC Stars 2004 ECNL Blue Head Coach Graeme Blackman. “Molly, Maggie, and Tanum have each worked extremely hard both on and off the field for many years to put themselves in a position to win such a prestigious award. I am confident that this is just one of many future honors, and I am excited to see what is next for them!” 

All three players were key contributors to the success of the 2004 Girls ECNL Blue team, who won the ECNL New England Conference this past season. 

Nelson is the first Gatorade Vermont Girls Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Harwood Union High School. The 5-foot-9 senior midfielder scored 35 goals and added 14 assists this past season, leading the Highlanders (14-2-1) to the Division 2 state semifinals. 

A United Soccer Coaches All-American, Nelson was named Player of the Year by both the Burlington Free Press and the Times Argus. As a three-time Capital League Player of the Year, she concluded her prep career with 103 goals. 

“Tanum Nelson is an absolute nightmare to play against,” said Tyler Post, head coach at Stowe High School. “She’s tall and fast with a high work rate, and she’s aggressive both offensively and defensively. From an opponent’s perspective, she is not the player that you ever want to face with the ball at her feet.” 

A member of the National Honor Society, Nelson has volunteered locally on behalf of her school’s chapter of the Rooted Organizing Community, a youth-led social justice initiative. Nelson maintained a 3.41 GPA in the classroom and signed a National Letter of Intent to play soccer at Cornell University this fall.

Martin played her high school soccer at Buckingham, Browne & Nichols School, becoming the second player from the school to win the Gatorade Massachusetts Girls Soccer Player of the Year. The 5-foot-7 senior defender led the Knights to a 21-0 record and the New England Prep School Athletic Council Class A tournament championship this past season. 

She scored six goals and had nine assists while anchoring a defense that allowed just two goals all season. Ranked as the nation’s No. 116 recruit in the Class of 2022 by TopDrawerSoccer.com, Martin played in the High School All-American Game in December and participated in a virtual camp with the U.S. Soccer Under-18 Women’s National Team in April 2021. 

“Molly Martin is an incredible player,” said Nick Rugnetta, head coach of Thayer Academy. “She basically just dictates play, dominates the midfield and controls the entire tempo of the game while also generating and springing attacks for BB&N. I will miss seeing Molly play except for when she played Thayer.” 

Martin has volunteered locally as a school tour guide and on behalf of the Special Olympics while maintaining an A-minus average in the classroom. She has also donated her time at a soup kitchen and as a youth soccer coach. 

Taking advantage of NCAA early signing rules, Martin inked a financial-aid agreement that paved the way for her to enroll at Penn State University. She graduated from high school in December and began attending classes in Happy Valley this past spring semester.

Cochran represented Cape Elizabeth High School while earning the 2021-22 Gatorade Maine Girls Soccer Player of the Year for the second year running. The 5-foot-8 senior midfielder led the Capers to a 17-1 record and the Class B state championship this past season. Cochran scored 21 goals and passed for 14 assists, including five goals in Cape Elizabeth’s four-game postseason run to the state title. 

A four-time Class B Player of the Year, she was also named the 2021 Portland Press-Herald Varsity Maine Player of the Year and is a two-time United Soccer Coaches High School All-American selection. Cochran concluded her prep soccer career with 77 goals and 46 assists.

“Maggie is a breath of fresh air both on and off the field,” said Graham Forsyth, head coach of Cape Elizabeth High School. “Her relentless approach to improving and also helping others around her epitomizes everything about her. Without her, we may not have won any of the three state titles that we did win.”

While maintaining an A average in the classroom, Cochran volunteered locally as a peer helper at Cape Elizabeth High School and has donated her time as a youth soccer coach. She signed a national letter of intent to play soccer on scholarship at Northeastern University this fall.

All three players are now finalists for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year award to be announced in June. They each join an elite alumni association of state award-winners across 12 sports, including Abby Wambach (1997-98, Our Lady of Mercy School of Young Women, N.Y.), Matthew Stafford (2005-06, Highland Park High School, Texas) and Jayson Tatum (2015-16, Chaminade College Preparatory School, Mo.). 

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 Player of the Year Selection Committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the state winners in each sport.

Gatorade has a long-standing history of serving athlete communities and understands how sports instill valuable lifelong skills on and off the field. Through Gatorade’s “Play it Forward” platform, each state winner has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national organization of their choosing that helps young athletes realize the benefits of playing sports. Each winner is also eligible to submit a short video explaining why the organization they chose is deserving of one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants, which will be announced throughout the year. To date, Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants have totaled more than $3.5 million across more than 1,300 organizations.

Since the program’s inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of professional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming coaches, business owners and educators. 


For full list of winners across all sports, visit https://playeroftheyear.gatorade.com/