CATAWISSA, Pa. — First Loren Gehret was named to the high-school All-American team by the United Soccer Coaches. Then named as their female state player of the year in 2022 for her 44 goals this season leading Southern Columbia to its 3rd state title in a row. Now Gatorade has stepped in their 38th year of honoring the nation's best high-school athletes choosing Gehret as their 2022-2023 Gatorade Pennsylvania Girls’ Soccer Player of the Year.
“Talk about how you found out? When you got the text or when you got the phone call? I found out when I was at the beach. Me and my family went on a vacation, and I woke up to my mom screaming about the award and it was cool because my whole family was there to witness it and it was like a big party early in the morning like 7 o'clock,” said Loren.
Loren finished her career with the Tigers with 139 career goals and 76 assists.
“Oh it means a lot to me. I didn’t expect it. I was named State Player of the Year and that was just insane to me and then when my mom told me in the morning, and I woke up I was just in complete shock. It was crazy,” again said Loren.
“You can't really say enough about Loren. She is a great player. And a great person and a great role model for younger kids to look up to and she is well deserved of this award,” said Derek.
Loren is the 2nd athlete here at Southern Columbia to win the Gatorade Player of the Year award. The other athlete to win the award was Julian Fleming and he won that one for football.
“I do know that being even compared to Julian is like cool and is just one of those players that you see once in your lifetime especially at a school a small school in the middle of a corn field. It's just really neat that two people got to come out of Southern and be named Gatorade Player of the Year,” added Loren.
Over the last 10 years other Gatorade winners include JC Show from Abington Heights for Boys’ Basketball, Ben Liscum from Lewisburg for Boys’ Soccer, Marissa Trivelpiece from Hazleton for softball, Payden Montana Berwick track, Mike Nikorak from Stroudsburg baseball, Tessa Barrett from Abington Heights Cross Country, Brendan Shearn North Schuylkill Cross Country, and Alexis Bower Williamsport softball.