CHICAGO - Incoming freshman Mia Asenjo was recognized as the 2020-21 Gatorade Florida Girls Soccer Player of the Year on Tuesday.
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 Asenjo as Florida's best high school girls soccer player. She is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year award to be announced in June.
Asenjo is the first Gatorade Florida Girls Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Montverde Academy.
The Malverne, New York, native was named to the 2019 ECNL All-America Team after leading her New York high school, Valley Stream South, to a New York State Class A Championship. She was also named the ECNL U15 Player of the Year in the Northeast Conference by Top Drawer Soccer. She transferred to Montverde Academy where she led the Eagles to an 11-0 record, scoring five goals with four assists. She also competed at the club level with Florida Kraze Krush.
She was selected to compete with the U20 Dominican Republic National Team to compete in the CONCACAF Women's U-20 championship. The Dominican Republican squad advanced to the semi-final round and Asenjo scored four goals along the way.
Asenjo has volunteered with the Outreach 360 Foundation in the Dominican Republic, teaching entrepreneurship and English to children. She is also a Voice in Sport Foundation Ambassador, advocating equity for female athletes around the country, and she has donated her time as a youth soccer coach.
Asenjo is the second Knight to earn the Gatorade Florida Girls Soccer Player of the Year distinction. Katie Jackson received the honor in 2007-08.
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.
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.
The complete list of honorees can be found here.
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