One thing Gabby Gerry said the one thing to know about her is how passionate she is about soccer — dating back to when she was 3 years old.
“It’s always been the number one thing that I’ve always loved and the thing I’ve been good at,” Gerry said. “I took it into consideration, and I realized how much of a passion it was for me, and now I just like stride with it. It’s what I love, it doesn’t feel like a job.”
Edward Little’s Gabby Gerry, left and Oxford Hills’ Meredith Harthorne battle for the ball during a September game in Auburn. Gerry scored 10 goals and assisted on six others as a junior this fall. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
The junior was Edward Little’s top scorer with 10 goals and six assists this season; something Tyler Shennett said was a goal she set for herself in the preseason. She is also this year’s Sun Journal All-Region Girls Soccer Player of the Year.
Shennett said Gerry typically played with her right foot as a center forward in her first two varsity years and during club soccer, but moved her to the left side in a wider position this season.
“Our first conversation, when I told her that she was playing on the left side, she kind of like looked at me wide-eyed and I’m like, ‘Yeah, you’re playing on the left side,’” Shennet said. “That was over the summer, and I remember she scored a goal that first game and she came up and she looked at me and goes, ‘Yeah, I like it on the left.’”
He also called Gerry one of the Red Eddies’ most dynamic and technical players, being a dual-footed player with a strong right foot but also with an ability to cut in from the left side, using both her feet to put herself in a better position to hit the ball with her right foot.
“It’s definitely a strength that she had to learn, but it made her a better player,” Shennett said. “She’s really a sight to behold when she’s on the ball. She’s very good in one-v-one situations and taking on defenders, and she never shied away from a challenge — which definitely makes her hard to defend.”
This season was Shennett’s first coaching the Red Eddies, but not his first knowing the Gerry family. Gerry’s mother, Angela Gerry, was Shennett’s fifth- and sixth-grade teacher at Webster Elementary in Auburn. The level of trust that already existed between Gabby Gerry and Shennett from knowing each other for so long was valuable, they both said, in building Gerry’s technical skills on the field this season.
Gabby Gerry of Edward Little High School focuses during a September game in Auburn against Hampden Academy. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal
“He is such a nice person in general, he’s, like, just so heartfelt,” Gerry said. “He just supports me in every way, even when I’m at one of my lowest moments overthinking myself on the field. He always takes me off, talks to me and sits me down and he just calms my thoughts, and then I get right back out there.”
Shennett said Gerry’s coachability goes hand in hand with her mentality on the field, because she is receptive to feedback, a positive outlet for her teammates and immediately applies technical critiques after he gives them.
“Her positivity and the smile on her face, like she wants to constantly improve, and that’s one of the things that makes her so much fun to work with,” Shennett, a 2010 Edward Little graduate, said.
Most impressive, though, is her ability to take herself out when she needs a minute without letting it get to her, he said.
“Even when she would be having a hard, tough game, and she’s getting down on herself, she was really good about making sure to stay positive for the team,” Shennett said. “She was direct when she was trying to influence the team in a way.”
In addition to playing club soccer with SeaCoast United Soccer New England, the three-sport athlete also runs track and plays lacrosse. In soccer, Gerry was named a captain this season, as a junior, and Shennett said that was a direct result of how much the team could count on her to both support and perform.
“I work very hard, until I succeed, like I never settle,” Gerry said. “I’m not OK with knowing the fact that I’m not at my best potential.”
Gerry’s offseason training never ends, with conditioning and wall ball, which she said she does constantly. She said she goes to the wall by a nearby school and kicks the soccer ball at it nearly every day, and she looks up videos on YouTube for new dribbling techniques, shots or skills to learn.
“It’s really just a mental game, like it took a while for me to take control of my mind,” Gerry said.
Going into her senior season, Gerry is focusing on the team around her and how much of an impact they’ve had on her three years as a Red Eddie.
“I met some of the most amazing people I’m probably going to ever meet in my entire life, and I’m just I’m grateful for every moment shared on the field, because I never know if it’s going to be my last,” Gerry said. “I just play my hardest, and I’m just overall so grateful that I get the opportunity to be doing this — really, like I look forward to it every day.
“Even if I’m having one of the worst days, I just know I have soccer and that automatically makes me happy.”
Oxford Hills’ McKinley Soehren, left, and Edward Little’s Gabby Gerry, right, battle for a loose ball during a Sept. 26, 2023, girls soccer game in Auburn. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
She also has her sights set on helping the Red Eddies win a state championship, but said that is more of a goal than a sole focus.
Shennett said he has no doubt she will achieve big things in her final high school season next year, alongside a strong group of fellow seniors-to-be.
“Soccer is literally the most important thing to that kid, without a doubt,” Shennett said. “There’s a lot more that goes into being a student-athlete than just obviously playing sports, but if that kid could play soccer 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, she would.”
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