Newcomer Pavatt is Gatorade Player of the Year for Arkansas

by: Madelon Allen, Assistant Coordinator/Communications

STARKVILLE, Miss. – Mississippi State Soccer's incoming freshman KK Pavatt has earned her second-straight Gatorade Player of the Year title for 2020 the state of Arkansas, announced on June 17.

Pavatt, a forward and midfielder from Conway, Ark., scored 31 goals and recorded 12 assists in her junior season en route to her first Arkansas Gatorade Player of the Year title in 2019. She had seven games with multiple goals and had six hat tricks and was also named the Wendy's Arkansas Activities Association Player of the Year. By the end of her junior season, she had amassed a total of 56 goals and 28 assists over her career, with her team making the State Championship and going undefeated in conference play. She also was playing with two of her three sisters.

In the fall of 2019, she played for the now-disbanded U.S. Soccer Development Academy, or the DA, in Texas for the club team FC Dallas under coach Matt Grubb.

"The way I got there is pretty crazy," said Pavatt. "My high school coach, his sister lives in the same neighborhood as Matt Grubb. I got introduced through that line of people. I started training with Coach Grubbs In January of last year, and he wanted me to not play with my high school team that year, but I had made a commitment to my school. That summer at the end of July and early part of August I went for team camp. From there I figured out that timing wise and life wise I wasn't going to be able to play full time. At first, we thought we weren't going to be able to swing it at all, but Matt jumped through hoop after hoop after hoop to get me down there to play. I ended up becoming a Discovery Player or a part-time player and I still went to Dallas every week for like four or five days a week and played with them in 12 games. In Florida in December I played really, really well. In three games I had three goals and two assists of the five goals we scored."

At the start of her senior season in the spring of 2020 for Conway High School, she missed the first two games due to injury. She would go on to play in the next four. In those four games, she tallied six goals and recorded two assists.

Her senior stats put her in the top tier of her state, and on top of her playing resume with both FC Dallas and in Conway, she had some coaching experience under her belt. She was the assistant coach for her club team in Arkansas, Real, coaching two girls teams, running training sessions and more.

"I'm thankful for winning it again," said Pavatt. "I had a great high school career, and now I'm ready to get to Starkville and start my college career with the Bulldogs."

Pavatt is not the first Bulldog to win the accolade from Gatorade, but funnily enough, she also isn't the first to win it in back-to-back years, or be the first to accomplish that feat from Conway, Arkansas. Jordan Danberry, who just finished her final season playing women's basketball for the Bulldogs as a graduate student, earned the Arkansas Gatorade Player of the Year accolade in both 2014 and 2015 for the state of Arkansas for girls basketball. Danberry attended Conway High School. Pavatt was homeschooled, but played for the Wampus Cats on their soccer team.

Mississippi State University Athletics

Newcomer Pavatt is Gatorade Player of the Year for Arkansas

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