Maddie DiMaria wins Gatorade National Player of the Year award for 2nd time

Maddie DiMaria has officially cemented herself among the most decorated prep soccer players in the country. On Wednesday, Gatorade announced that the Cor Jesu Academy (Affton, Mo.) junior is the 2025-26 Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year — making her just the second two-time winner in the award’s history and the only player to claim the honor as both a freshman and a junior.

A Dominant Junior Campaign

DiMaria’s case for a second national title was hard to argue against. The 5-foot-7 forward poured in 67 goals and added 25 assists this past season, leading Cor Jesu to a perfect 25-0 record and the Missouri Class 4 state championship. She capped the title run with a hat trick in a 5-0 win over St. Teresa’s Academy in the championship match, and the win gave Cor Jesu its third consecutive state crown.

Across her high school career, DiMaria has now scored 142 goals — staggering production that has made her one of the most sought-after recruits in the country, regardless of class year. She also stars in the ECNL for St. Louis Scott Gallagher (SLSG) and is one of the premier attacking talents in the U.S. Youth National Team roster pool.

Building a Legacy

DiMaria first burst onto the national scene as a freshman in 2023-24, when she became the first-ever freshman to win the Gatorade National Player of the Year award after scoring 30 goals and dishing 21 assists en route to a state title. She backed that up with a 45-goal, 19-assist sophomore season before this year’s record-breaking junior campaign.

The accolades have piled up alongside the trophies. DiMaria is now a three-time Gatorade Missouri Player of the Year, a two-time United Soccer Coaches All-American, and the No. 1 recruit nationally in the 2027 class according to both Prep Soccer and Top Drawer Soccer.

She was selected for this year’s national honor from a pool of nearly 500,000 high school girls soccer players nationwide, joining a list of past winners — including Mallory Swanson, Aly Wagner, and Kennedy Fuller — whose collective résumé includes more than 17 Olympic gold medals and nine national championships.

International Pedigree

DiMaria’s talent has translated seamlessly to the international stage. She has represented the U.S. at the U-14, U-15, U-16, and U-17 levels, and helped the U.S. Under-15 squad capture gold at the 2025 CONCACAF Championship. She’s set to continue that momentum with a trip to Japan for a U.S. U-17 Women’s National Team camp this summer.

In comments following the announcement, DiMaria described being caught completely off guard when she learned the news, saying she came downstairs to find her family, friends, coaches, and teammates waiting with the trophy. She called it one of the most surreal moments of her career.

What’s Next

DiMaria’s prep career is set to wrap up early. She plans to graduate from Cor Jesu after the fall semester and enroll at the University of North Carolina ahead of schedule, joining a Tar Heels program that won the national championship in head coach Damon Nahas’s first season in 2024. UNC is coming off a 13-6-2 campaign that ended with a penalty-kick loss to TCU in the third round of the NCAA Tournament.

With a second national player of the year award now in hand and a move to Chapel Hill on the horizon, DiMaria’s rise from record-setting freshman to one of the most accomplished players in U.S. high school soccer history shows no signs of slowing down.