Emily Taucher of Rock Springs Named Gatorade Girls Soccer POY
In its 36th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Emily Taucher of Rock Springs High School as its 2020-21 Gatorade Wyoming Girls Soccer Player of the Year. Taucher is the second Gatorade Wyoming Girls Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Rock Springs 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 Taucher as Wyoming’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, Taucher joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Alexi Lalas (1987-88, Cranbrook High School, Mich.), Steve Cherundolo (1996-97, Mt. Carmel High School, Calif.), Abby Wambach (1997-98, Our Lady of Mercy School of Young Women, N.Y.), Heather O’Reilly (2001-02 & 2002-03, East Brunswick High School, N.J.), Matt Besler (2004-05, Blue Valley West High School, Kans.), Jack Harrison (2013-14, Berkshire High School, Mass.) and Mallory Pugh (2014-15, Mountain Vista High School, Colo.).
The 5-foot-7 junior midfielder scored 14 goals and passed for 17 assists this past season, leading the Tigers to the Class 4A state championship. Taucher is a First Team All-State honoree and a two-time All-Conference selection.
She has volunteered locally in association with the National Honor Society. “You really have to plan for Emily Taucher,” said Jerry Realing, head coach at Kelly Walsh High. “She has fantastic skills as a central midfielder. Her pace of play is extraordinary and she’s strong on the ball. She can really change a game.”
Taucher has maintained a 3.91 GPA in the classroom. She will begin her senior year of high school this fall.
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Taucher joins recent Gatorade Wyoming Girls Soccer Players of the Year Alyssa Bedard (2019-20, Rock Springs High School), Grace Roswadovski (2018-19, Thunder Basin High School), and Lexi Pulley (2017-18 & 2016-17, Laramie High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.
Through Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Taucher has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of their choosing. Taucher is also eligible to submit a 30-second 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 has totaled more than $2.7 million across 1,117 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.