CHICAGO — In its 26th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, announced Tayler Estrada of Bentonville High School as its 2010-11 Gatorade Arkansas Girls Soccer Player of the Year. Estrada is the third Gatorade Arkansas Girls Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Bentonville 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 Estrada as Arkansas’ 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 May, Estrada 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-7 sophomore midfielder has led the Tigers to a 15-1-3 record and a berth in the Class 7A state quarterfinals, scheduled for May 14. Estrada scored eight goals and passed for 10 assists through 19 games. A member of the U.S. Youth Soccer 1995 Region III Olympic Development Program team, she was a 2010 Class 7A First Team All-State selection and the 7A-West Conference Newcomer of the Year.
Estrada has maintained a 3.39 GPA in the classroom. She has volunteered locally at a food bank and animal shelter and as a youth soccer coach.
“Taylor Estrada is a fantastic player,” said Robert Parr, the Director of Coaching for the Arkansas State Soccer Association. “She has a lot going for her. She’s very competitive, that’s something in the women’s game we’re always trying to get. She’s got the athletic package and the technical package. She’s a complete player.”
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 ESPN RISE and the Gatorade high school sports leadership team, 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.
Estrada joins recent Gatorade Arkansas Girls Soccer Players of the Year Anne Mitchell, (2009-10, Fayetteville), April Miller (2008-09, Bentonville), and Mary Pat Hardin (2007-08, Mount St. Mary Academy) among the state’s list of former award winners.