HOPE CHRISTIAN’S BRYSON FANKAM NAMED GATORADE NEW MEXICO GIRLS SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Gatorade today announced Bryson Fankam of Hope Christian High School is the 2025-26 Gatorade New Mexico Girls Soccer Player of the Year.
Gatorade Player of the Year is the top honor in high school sports, celebrating the nation’s best high school athletes for their excellence in sport, academics and community. The award recognizes Fankam as New Mexico’s best high school girls soccer player, and she joins an elite legacy that spans professional athletes and coaches to CEOs.
The 5-foot-6 junior midfielder led the Huskies to a 22-1 record and the Class 4A state championship this past season. Fankam scored 27 goals, passed for 14 assists and scored a hat trick as Hope Christian High School beat Aztec High School, 10-1, in the state quarterfinals. The three-time 4A state champion, the First Team All-State selection was also the District Player of the Year.
Fankam is the Vice President of the National Honor Society and has participated in multiple community service initiatives in that capacity. She has also completed a mission trip in Ecuador to support impoverished communities. “Bryson is one of the most complete players we’ve seen come out of New Mexico in a long time,” said Andew Wiese, head coach of Albuquerque Academy. “She brings an imposing physicality to the game. She’s very strong, mobile and can dominate the opposition defensively on the ground and in the air. She’s also incredibly clean technically and comfortable on the ball with both feet, which makes her very difficult to defend. She can beat you on the dribble if you’re too close, and she can beat you from distance if you stand off because she has good vision and strikes a ball so well. She has all the technical tools and applies them at a high level.”
Fankam has maintained a 4.57 weighted GPA in the classroom. She has made a verbal commitment to play soccer on scholarship at Boise State University in the fall of 2027.
The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one state winner from each of the 50 states and Washington D.C., in 12 different sports: football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, baseball, softball, boys and girls soccer, and boys and girls track & field. In total, 610 high school athletes are honored each year. From the pool of state winners, one national winner is selected in each of the 12 sports. The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the winners in each sport.
As part of Gatorade’s commitment to breaking down barriers in sport, every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner. To date, the Gatorade Player of the Year program has provided more than $6.4 million in grants to winners across more than 2,200 organizations.
