CHICAGO — In its 41st year celebrating the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Reese Morgan of Fossil Ridge High School is the 2025-26 Gatorade Colorado Girls Soccer Player of the Year.
Gatorade Player of the Year is the top honor in high school sports, celebrating the nation’s best high school athletes for their excellence in sport, academics and community. The award recognizes Morgan as Colorado’s best high school girls soccer player, and she joins an elite legacy that spans professional athletes and coaches to CEOs, such as Mallory Swanson (2014-15, Mountain Vista High School, Colorado), Riley Jackson (2021-22, Blessed Trinity Catholic High School, Georgia) and Addison Halpern (2024-25, Rutgers Preparatory School, New Jersey).
The 5-foot-4 senior midfielder led the Sabercats to a 18-1-1 record and the Class 5A state championship this past season. Morgan scored 7 goals and passed for 9 assists, netting the game winning goal in overtime as Fossil Ridge beat Mountain Vista High School, 2-1, in the state title game. She also scored the game-winner in both the 2025 and 2026 state semifinal games. Ranked as the No. 32 recruit in the Rocky Mountains & Southwest Region by TopDrawerSoccer, she was named the Class 5A Player of the Year.
Morgan has volunteered locally with Thompson Education Foundation Help Kids Succeed program, which collects and distributes school supplies to kids in need. She has also donated her time to the Poudre School District Special Olympics. “Reese is a player you have to account for at all times defensively and offensively because she changes and affects the game on both sides of the ball like very few players I’ve seen in a long time,” said Mike Lordemann, head coach of Winston High School.
Morgan has maintained a 4.15 weighted GPA in the classroom. She has signed a written letter of athletic aid to play soccer on scholarship to play soccer on scholarship at University of Denver this fall.
The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one state winner from each of the 50 states and Washington D.C., in 12 different sports: football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, baseball, softball, boys and girls soccer, and boys and girls track & field. In total, 610 high school athletes are honored each year. From the pool of state winners, one national winner is selected in each of the 12 sports. 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 winners in each sport.
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 $6.4 million in grants to winners across more than 2,200 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 Instagram at instagram.com/Gatorade, Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY and X (Twitter) at x.com/Gatorade.