CHICAGO -- Kennedy junior Gabe Christianson has been chosen the 2011 Gatorade Iowa Boys Soccer Player of the Year.

Christianson is the third Metro prep to earn a Gatorade award this school year. Linn-Mar's Kiah Stokes was the girls basketball player of the year and Jefferson's Jarrod Uthoff the boys basketball player of the year.

Christianson also is the second straight Kennedy athlete to win the award. Erik Boyer won it last year. He is the fourth Cougar to win the award. Adam Zenor won in 2001 and Jake Settle in 2003.

Winning the award makes Christianson eligible for the National Boys Soccer Player of the Year award, to be announced later this month.

Christianson has led the Cougars to a 9-4 record. He has 11 goals and 13 assists. This is his first year playing high school soccer. He is a member of the U.S. Youth Soccer Region II Olympic Program team and a member of the Iowa 1994 State ODP team that won the age-group ODP National Championship in March.

Besides soccer, Christianson is a solid student, sporting a 3.10 grade point average. He is a member of the Kennedy High Chorale, and has volunteered locally as a youth soccer coach and referee.

"He has all the technical and physical attributes you could want in a soccer player, and those strengths are complemented by his best asset: his soccer intelligence," Kennedy Coach Steve Robertson said in a printed release.