New York player of the year

In its 25th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with ESPN RISE named South Side High School’s Crystal Dunn as its 2009-10 Gatorade New York Girls Soccer Player of the Year. Dunn is the third Gatorade New York Girls Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from South Side High School.

The 5-foot-2 senior forward recorded 20 goals and 13 assists this past season, leading the Cyclones (18-0-2) to their third Class A state championship in her four varsity campaigns. A member of the U.S. Soccer Federation Under-20 Women’s National Team, Dunn scored four goals in South Side’s 6-0 victory over Greece Arcadia in the title game. An All-American selection by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, Dunn was also an ESPN RISE First Team All-American and the New York State Class A Player of the Year.

Dunn has maintained a B average in the classroom. A member of the South Side High Principal’s Advisory Council, she has volunteered locally at youth soccer camps and on behalf of special needs students in the district.

Dunn signed a National Letter of Intent to play soccer on scholarship at the University of North Carolina 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.

Dunn joins recent Gatorade New York Girls Soccer Players of the Year Kim DeCesare (2008-09, Massapequa), Alaina Beyar (2007-08, South Side), and Hannah Cerrone (2006-07, Ketcham) among the state’s list of recent award winners.