MORGANTOWN — After a junior year that yielded a state championship, state player of the year, and West Virginia Gatorade Player of the Year honors, Morgantown High School senior and captain of the Mohigans girls’ soccer team, Gracie Brown, is poised to help lead her team on a quest back-to-back state championships.
Gracie capped off her junior season by scoring the winning goal in the state championship game, her 23rd of the season. She also provided the difference-maker in a 1-0 semifinal victory. The midfielder recorded 17 assists on the season as well.
Now, entering her senior season at MHS, Brown faces a year in which she will have a new head coach and only one other senior on the roster. Despite those challenges, Brown believes MHS will be very talented and expect to compete for the top spot again.
“We had such a great year last year,” Brown said, reflecting on the 2022 campaign. “It was our best year as a team and my best year individually. I learned so much with all of my teammates surrounding me. Last year was so successful because the team all grew to be as strong as we could be and played really well.”
Brown said she and many of the girls on last year’s team had grown up playing together in travel soccer and through travel clubs like Mountaineer United Soccer Club based in Morgantown.
“I started playing with MUSC and that was always so much fun,” she said. “We switched over to WV Fury and that’s when I started feeling the game become more competitive and everyone started to really grow and become better players. In the past five years or so I’ve really seen a growth in the sport locally.”
Gracie is the daughter of WVU women’s soccer head coach Nikki Izzo-Brown, who is entering her 29th season at the helm for the Mountaineers. Naturally, she’s been around the game and the program her entire life and says it is nothing short of amazing.
“It’s awesome,” she said. “We have so many cool perks like getting to watch soccer all the time, play whenever we want, and learn so much. We literally live it and we love it.”
Brown says she’s also had the chance to get to know some of the players that have played for WVU and looks up to a lot of them as they’ve reached levels she hopes to one day reach herself. For example, former WVU defenders now playing professionally in Europe and for the Canadian Women’s National Team, Ashley Lawrence and Kadeisha Buchanan.
Brown gave a verbal commitment to Auburn University near the end of the school year, where she will join her sister, Sam, who is already a part of the Tigers roster.
“I’ve always wanted to go south and Auburn is a very competitive school,” she said on her decision. “I have been able to visit there multiple times and love the atmosphere and how hard they work. The family aspect around the team is great and my sister and her friends and teammates all get along so well.”
Gracie says her decision came down between Auburn and Clemson.
With her future now determined after high school, Brown says one of her main goals is to be able to give back to the team in her last year to help experience the feeling of winning a state title again.
