For the second time in less than a month, the state's best girls athlete in her sport is from the Tanner City.
Peabody High junior Hayley Dowd was named Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year in girls soccer yesterday, joining classmate Catarina Rocha (the girls cross country Runner of the Year) among four Peabody athletes to ever earn Gatorade honors.
"It's a nice honor because (Gatorade) considers school and community service," said Dowd, who is taking Advanced Placement English as a junior and was ranked 17th in her academic class last fall.
Gatorade has been honoring the top athlete in each state in a variety of sports since 1985, with the Mass. girls soccer award beginning in 1998.
Dowd is the first honoree from the North Shore and joins a national alumni list that includes USA women's national team fixtures Abby Wambach (New York, 1998) and Heather O'Reilly (New Jersey, 2002).
Dowd learned about the honor from Tanners coach Dennis Desroches, and also got a congratulatory call from athletic director Phil Sheridan.
Besides serving on Peabody High's captain's council, Dowd and teammate Bianca Muscato have been volunteering with a girls Under-10 travel soccer team in Peabody.
"We help out as much as we can; it's really rewarding," said Dowd. "They're so cute. They asked us for autographs and we signed a mini-ball for them. It's great to give back."
The Tanners went 22-0-2 last fall, winning the school's first state title in girls soccer and earning the No. 1 ranking in New England — and No. 5 nationally — from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. Dowd, who scored 41 goals and 60 points, was an NSCAA All-American and the Salem News Player of the Year.
"It definitely wasn't on my mind to win player of the year. It's smaller goals: make the state tournament, win our league and keep going," said Dowd. "I'm just happy to do anything that brings more attention to our team and our title. Sometimes I still watch DVDs of the games."
With 121 goals, 43 assists and 164 career points, Dowd is already Peabody's all-time leader and is verbally committed to play at Boston College. She's rated No. 6 nationally in her class by Top Drawer Soccer and has won two Northeastern Conference MVP awards.
Dowd said having two girls win such a prestigious award in the same high school class was "very cool" and was honored to be included on a list with Rocha.
"Cat's amazing. We grew up playing soccer together and she's in one of my classes; I love watching her run. She's something else."
Rocha and Dowd were the first girls to earn Gatorade honors for Peabody High, joining baseball players Ryan Moorer (2004) and Jeff Allison (2003).
