By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor
For the fourth time in the last six years, the top girls soccer player in Alabama hails from a Shelby County school as Taylor Leib etched her name into the record books as the Gatorade Player of the Year for Alabama girls soccer.
Gatorade announced Leib as the winner of the award on its website on Wednesday, June 18.
Leib joins a decorated list of recent winners from Shelby County, including former Oak Mountain star Kierson McDonald in 2023, Chelsea’s Haley Duca in 2021 and Westminster School at Oak Mountain’s Morgan White in the COVID-shortened 2020 season.
As a state winner of the award, Leib is also now a finalist for the national Gatorade Player of the Year award.
Leib had the second-most goals of any player in Shelby County with 40 goals across 22 appearances. She also added 12 assists to her tally by contributing all around the soccer pitch.
As a result of her contributions, Briarwood won its final eight matches of the season and won the Class 6A state championship, its tenth state title in program history. Leib scored five times in the final eight matches.
In addition to her state player of the year honors, Leib was named the All-Metro A-Division Player of the Year for the Birmingham area and was a Super All-State and All-Metro A-Division First Team selection each of the last three years. She also received All-County First Team honors in 2023 and 2024 and North-South All-Star Game MVP in 2024.
She finished out her Briarwood career with 131 goals and 38 assists while reaching the Final Four as a sophomore, junior and senior. Leib led the county in scoring in both her sophomore and junior seasons to win the Shelby County Golden Boot twice.
“Taylor is electric in all ways,” Thompson girls soccer coach Dan DeMasters said in the official Gatorade Player of the Year press release. “At any point in the game, Taylor can take over when she feels fit. She has great vision and understands where to be at all times.”
The Gatorade Player of the Year award also factors in off-field performance such as academics and community service, two things that Leib succeeds in as well.
Leib graduated Briarwood Christian School with a 4.65 weighted GPA and was the president of the BCS chapter of the National Honor Society as well as treasurer of Mu Alpha Theta, Briarwood’s math honor society.
Leib was also secretary of the Briarwood Christian School Student Government Association and volunteers locally as a youth soccer coach and with her church’s Vacation Bible School. She will receive a grant to donate to a charity of her choice on behalf of Gatorade as a result of her win.
Leib will go on to play at Clemson after signing her written offer of athletic aid earlier this year. She is also currently a member of Birmingham Legion WFC in the semi-professional USL W-League this summer.
