CHICAGO — In its 39th year of honoring the nation’s most elite high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Sarah Bonnecaze of Episcopal School is the 2023-24 Gatorade Louisiana Girls Soccer Player of the Year. Bonnecaze is the first Gatorade Louisiana Girls Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Episcopal School.
The award, which celebrates the nation’s top high school athletes for excellence on the field, in the classroom and in the community, distinguishes Bonnecaze as Louisiana’s best high school girls soccer player. From CEOs and coaches to star athletes, Gatorade Player of the Year winners showcase the power of sport, touting an all-star group of alumni that includes Aly Wagner (1997-98, Presentation High School, Calif.), Mallory Swanson (2014-15, Mountain Vista High School, Colo.) and Kennedy Fuller (2022-23 & 2021-22, Southlake Carroll High School, Texas).
The 5-foot-6 senior midfielder led the Knights to a 21-2-1 record, which consisted of an undefeated regular season and their sole loss in the finals of the Class 4 state championship. Bonnecaze scored 52 goals and passed for 45 assists, netting 14 goals in Episcopal’s five-game postseason run, including a hatrick and an assist in a 4-0 semifinals win. She also won the state’s Golden Boot award for the season’s highest goal total and took home the All-Sate Most Valuable Player Award.
Sarah has volunteered locally with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Baton Rouge, a nonprofit that partners with low-income families and communities to help eliminate poverty by building simple, well constructed homes. She has donated her time to BRSC Unified Soccer, a free program for players with intellectual and physical challenges. “Sarah has another level on the pitch,” said Sean Esker, the LHSCA President, “When she turns it on, she puts the entire team on her shoulders.”
Bonnecaze has maintained a weighted 4.28 GPA in the classroom. She has signed a national letter of intent to play soccer on scholarship at Texas Christian University this fall.
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.
Bonnecaze joins recent Gatorade Louisiana Girls Soccer Players of the Year Faith Johnston (2022-23, Parkview Baptist School), Kelsey Major (2021-22 & 2020-21, St. Mary’s Dominican High School) and Jordan Grigsby (2019-20, NortHigh Schoolhore High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.
As part of Gatorade’s commitment to breaking down barriers in sport, every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner. To date, the Gatorade Player of the Year program has provided more than $4.9 million in grants to winners across more than 1,900 organizations.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com or follow us on social media on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY, Instagram at instagram.com/Gatorade and X(Twitter) at x.com/Gatorade.
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