By Official Florida FC
St. Johns Bartram Trail midfielder Grace Ivey was named Miss Soccer on Wednesday afternoon.
Ivey has been the Queen of Zone 14 in Northeast Florida soccer circles since she was freshman.
Now a senior, she helped the Bears win the Class 7A state championship and finish as Florida’s only unbeaten girls soccer team. In addition to scoring 19 goals and providing 35 assists, she was the lynchpin of a free-flowing Bartram Trail attack that scored 102 goals.
Ivey, a four-year starter for the Bears who won three state championships, will play collegiately at Texas A&M.
Gulf Breeze forward Meredith Pugh finished second in the voting that was done by a statewide panel of sports reporters. Cape Coral Mariner junior midfielder Ryleigh Acosta was third. (Disclosure: Official Florida FC was one of the outlets that voted on the award.)
Ivey joins a list that includes two-time World Cup winner Ashlyn Harris (2003), two-time NCAA champion Emily Madril (2016) as well as, Nandi Pryce (2000), Carson Pickett (2012) and Jody Brown (2019) all of whom have earned international caps.
Ivey’s coach Jen Rodriguez was named the statewide Coach of the Year for the second time in four seasons. She won the award in 2020. Rodriguez has a 359-93-43 record in 22 seasons on the touchline.
Lakeland Christian head coach Jason Streets was second in the Coach of the Year voting after leading the Vikings to a third straight state championship. Gulf Breeze’s Albert Gatica was third.
Rodriguez’s win marked the fourth straight year a coach from St. Johns County has won the award. Ponte Vedra’s Dave Silverberg won in 2021 after winning his seventh FHSAA championship. St. Johns Creekside head coach Joe Soto – an assistant of Rodriguez’s for years – was the co-Coach of the Year in 2022 alongside Orlando Bishop Moore’s Amy Geltz.
