She’s won 2 state titles and 3 state player of the year awards. And she’s just a junior.
Rocky Mountain’s Kelsey Oyler already owns a pair of state player of the year awards.
But the junior midfielder added another one Wednesday when the Gatorade Company announced her as its all-class Idaho girls soccer player of the year for the 2019-2020 school year.
The 5-foot-7 midfielder led the Grizzlies (17-1-2) to a second straight 5A championship last fall, scoring 18 goals and tallying 27 assists. She led the 5A Southern Idaho Conference in points (63), tied for the league lead in goals and her 27 assists were more than double the next closest player in the SIC (12).
“Kelsey is dangerous up top and is a good scorer,” Centennial coach Steve Snider said in a news release. “She isn’t just a one-way player waiting for her teammates to win the ball. She plays defense, competes hard on the ball and is always doing the extra-effort things to put herself in position to make a play.”
Idaho’s soccer coaches named Oyler the 5A and all-class player of the year in the fall in their all-state teams. Idaho plays its soccer season in the fall, but Gatorade announces its player of the year in the spring to allow other states to finish their schedules.
Oyler has verbally committed to Gonzaga as part of its 2021 recruiting class. She carries a 4.0 GPA and has volunteered as a tutor and a youth soccer coach.
She is the third girls soccer player in school history to win the Gatorade award, joining Raimee Sherle (2013-14) and Brooke Heidemann (2011-12).
Skyview junior defender Jordan Sykes was announced as the Idaho boys soccer player of the year last week.
TETON REPLACES REDSKINS MASCOT
After dropping its Redskins mascot a year ago, students at Teton High School in East Idaho selected a new one this week — the Timberwolves.
Timberwolves won a student election that initially included 15 other options. Timberwolves received 53% of the votes in the fourth and final round. Other finalists included the Raptors and the Yeti.
Teton dropped its Redskins mascot last summer after 90 years. Community members and two Idaho tribes, the Shoshone-Bannock and Nez Perce, campaigned for the change, citing its use as a racial slur and its dictionary definition as offensive.
The Shoshone-Bannock’s ancestral homeland includes the Teton Valley near Idaho’s border with Wyoming.
Boise High also replaced its Braves nickname last summer, changing it to the Brave. And Meridian High has vowed to stop using depictions of Native Americans in its Warriors logo in new projects.
This story was originally published June 17, 2020 at 3:15 PM.
