Thom Hayes, girls soccer coach at Trinity Lutheran High School, said it was an easy decision to present the most valuable player award to Emma Myers at an awards program held Tuesday night at Rails Craft Brew & Eatery.

“Emma is the most talented player I have ever coached,” he said. “We can start with the stats.”

This season, she scored 41 goals and had 10 assists, and for her career, she had 72 goals and 28 assists.

“That blows away the previous records of 36 season goals and 63 career goals,” Hayes said.

“I know Emma is grateful for the guidance from her coaches and certainly for the support the team gave her this year in reaching these accomplishments, but she truly did achieve this through her own hard work,” he said. “She has been a year-round soccer player for years and has never lost focus on doing whatever it takes to get better. On top of her skill, she is a great leader. With a more driven approach, she made a good complement to Samantha (Enzinger) in team leadership.”

Hayes presented the Cougar Award to Enzinger and named Emalee Goss as the most improved player.

Enzinger was the Cougars’ goalie this fall.

“Samantha is one of my favorite players to coach and one of my favorite human beings,” Hayes said. “She takes a laid-back approach to leadership and has been a team captain for two years in a row. Samantha consistently demonstrated reliability, respectfulness and compassion. She was an excellent spiritual leader before every game and is a great witness of faith.”

Hayes said Goss is an athlete who gives it all every time she is on the field.

“She spent time in midfield and defense her freshman year and did well. This year, however, Emalee stepped up her game, learning how to use her speed and read opponents to gain advantages on both offense and defense,” Hayes said. “She became a go-to player to provide quality play at either forward or defense based on what we needed for that game.”

The Cougars were 11-8 this season and lost to Providence in the sectional championship match.

“Any time you get more than 10 wins, it’s a good season,” Hayes said. “Most of our losses came against very talented and full-rostered teams. We got a great sectional draw, but it was nice that we took advantage of that and played very well to get to the championship.

“Overall, we won almost all of the games I think we should have, telling me we played to the best of our ability,” he said. “As a coach, that’s what we look for the most. This year’s team was a joy to be around. There were moments of frustration for both coaches and players, but the team really bonded well, which made for a very enjoyable season for everyone involved.”

Seniors on the team were Myers, Enzinger, Siddha Hall, Kathryn Whitmore and Kennedy Royalty.

Myers, Whitmore and Enzinger received Senior Awards for playing soccer for four years.

Gary Myers was an assistant coach this season.