Abby Burnette, Loyd Star

If she had chosen to do so, it wouldn’t have been hard for Abby Burnette to have found a place to play college soccer. Though she’s going on to next play softball at Copiah-Lincoln Community College for the national championship-winning program there, Burnette made a lasting mark on the soccer field at Loyd Star during her career.

As a senior, Burnette scored 42 goals and dished out eight assists for a Loyd Star team that finished 16-6, captured Region 7-Class I and won an opening round MHSAA playoff match.

For her efforts, Burnette has been named the 2023-2024 All-Area Most Valuable Player for girls’ soccer.

Since she transferred in and joined the program at Loyd Star, the goal has been to have Burnette around the ball for the Hornet soccer team.

That was a mission accomplished for head coach Jordan Lea as he’s seen Burnette up her scoring total each of her four varsity seasons while being named All-Area every year during that time.

As a freshman, Burnette scored 16 goals and as a sophomore, she added 29 more goals. As a junior, Burnette scored 30 goals and had a career best 19 assists as Loyd Star went 18-4 and reached the second round of the MHSAA playoffs.

After the graduation of her fellow striker Mary Claire McCurley, Lea knew Burnette would have more defenses focused on stopping her.

It didn’t matter though, as Burnette either scored or assisted on 50 of the 87 goals scored by Loyd Star this season. She broke McCurley’s single season record of 39 goals and was the second leading MHSAA scorer in the state, finishing with more goals scored than anyone else in the Class I ranks.

 

Noah Fisher-Butler,

Brookhaven Academy

Sophomore Noah Fisher-Butler isn’t the first exchange student to grace the halls of Brookhaven Academy in the over 50 years history of the school.

To find an exchange student who’s made an impact in athletics before Fisher-Butler, one might have to go back to the 1990s, when Croation Lovro Ronchevic dominated on the tennis court while also suiting up for coach Gene “Moochie” Britt in basketball.

In just one season of soccer, Fisher-Butler, a native of England, has already made a huge impact for the Cougars in boys’ soccer.

Fisher-Butler controlled things in the midfield for the Cougars, scoring 28 goals and assisting on 33 more goals. For his outstanding play in leading Brookhaven Academy to the MAIS Class II championship match, Fisher-Butler has been named the 2023-2024 All-Area Most Valuable Player for boys’ soccer.

Hailing from Thetford, which is north of London, Fisher-Butler comes from a culture that’s crazy about soccer, or as they call it there, futbol. In his first match at BA, Fisher-Butler scored two goals and assisted on two more in a 10-2 win for the Cougars.

That match set the tone, as Fisher-Butler scored a season best four goals in an 8-0 win over Adams County Christian School.

A connection through Facebook helped land Fisher-Butler at Brookhaven Academy, which for Cougar fans, is proof that the website isn’t just filled with fake news and badly lit selfies.