Paige Salmon named CHSAA Player of the Year

The plan was to fool Paige Salmon into thinking she was going to the CHSAA girls soccer championship game to collect a plaque for Kellenberg’s regular season league title. Little did she know she'd actually be receiving the player of the year award. 

Problem was, competitor that she is, she didn’t want to go to the game.

“I was pretty upset, she said, “because I wasn’t playing in it.” 

So her coaches and teammates had to sell her on the idea and ultimately convinced her to go.

“We wanted her to be surprised,” Kellenberg coach Liz Finn said. “We told her to just come by, we’ll all hang out there and then she could go get the plaque. She put up a fight, but she went...begrudgingly.”

After St. John the Baptist defeated Sacred Heart, the announcement was made during the postgame ceremony that the 2013 CHSAA player of the year was Salmon, who came down from the stands to accept the award. 

“It definitely shocked me when I first got it,” she said.  “I couldn’t have done it without my coaches and the team that’s plays in front of me because they played amazing this year.”

Salmon, who was also named to Newsday’s All-Long Island team, guided the Firebirds to an unbeaten regular season and the top-seed in the CHSAA playoffs before Kellenberg was upset by Sacred Heart in the semifinals.  Salmon, a three-year starter at goalkeeper, was the voice of the defense, directing defenders to their marks and calling out runs. She regularly came off the line to contest a ball in the box or thwart a potential breakaway. Perhaps most importantly, she was a fearless keeper who made the most acrobatic of saves look routine.   

“She contorted her body like I’ve never seen before,” Finn said.  “Some of the saves she came up with were just jaw dropping.”      

Paige was the second of three Salmon sisters to pass through the Kellenberg girls soccer program. As a sophomore she played with her older sister Taylor, who at the time was a senior defender.  Her younger sister Brooke, a speedy center-mid who was a huge part of Kellenberg’s success this season by using her physicality and touch to control the middle of the field, was called up to varsity in Paige’s junior year.

“Having that bond with my sisters, not even in the house but on the field, was a great advantage,” Paige said.  “We definitely worked wonderfully together.  Being able to finish out my high school years playing soccer with my sisters has been fantastic. ”

Her sister Taylor was recruited by Finn to play a role in getting the Salmon family to the championship game in order to see Paige be surprised with the player of the year award.   

 “I had no idea,” Paige said.  “It caught me off guard but I was really excited when they called my name because it showed that all my hard work was recognized. I’m glad I ended up going to the game…and I couldn’t have asked for better teammates to be there with me.”

Even though they lied to get her there.