Meet The Observer’s best girls’ athletes, teams, coaches of the 2025-26 school year
One coach, two players and one team are being recognized today as the best in Charlotte-area girls’ high school sports for the 2025-26 school year.
Each June, The Observer honors the best performers of the entire school year. These awards are in addition to seasonal teams the media company names in fall, winter and spring.
This year’s girls’ winners are:
Coach of the year: Gary Hoilett, Charlotte Catholic
Girls’ athlete of the year: Oshauna Holland, Stuart Cramer
Team of the year: Charlotte Catholic girls’ soccer
Comeback athlete of the year: Kelley Tarpley, Ardrey Kell
Scholar-athlete of the year: Caroline Mallard, Charlotte Country Day
Here is why we picked these deserving honorees:
Coach of the year: Gary Hoilett, Charlotte Catholic
Hoilett led Catholic’s boys’ soccer team to a state title in November and did the same thing in the spring, taking the Cougars’ girls to a state championship, too.
And it’s not the first time he’s done that. Hoilett also won the double in the 2002-03 school year.
Hoilett also won his 900th game this season, his ninth state championship and coached, perhaps, the best girls’ team his school has fielded.
The 2026 Catholic Cougars finished 24-0-1, ended the season on a 19-game win streak and were No. 1 in the nation when they beat Jacksonville, 1-0, in the N.C. 6A state championship game last month. The Cougars, currently No. 2 in the national rankings, will return 14 players next season, including many of their top players.
“This team (was) probably deeper than some I’ve had,” said Hoilett, who has 911 wins total. “When you go to the bench, you’ve got more quality. But every year, it’s got to come together.”
Here’s how well it came together for Hoilett’s team this spring: Catholic outscored teams 120-7.
Girls’ athlete of the year: Oshauna Holland, Stuart Cramer
Holland won nearly every statewide basketball player of the year award — Gatorade, MaxPreps, N.C. Ms. Basketball — and was named The Observer’s regional player of the year.
The Wake Forest recruit averaged 33.5 points, 8.4 rebounds, 7.4 steals and 7.2 assists per game. She was one of the nation’s top 15 scorers. She led North Carolina in scoring and was third in assists.
She finished her career with 3,252 points, the most for any N.C. player in history, male of female.
“I didn’t expect anything different from Oshauna,” Stuart Cramer coach Carey Pohlman said. “She’s always ready to play, and it seems she always steps up her game, even in the playoffs. That’s no surprise that she got the record. I’m just glad she (was) on our side, and that I got to coach her every day.”
Team of the year: Charlotte Catholic soccer
Catholic just didn’t have many weaknesses.
The Cougars had five double-figure scorers — sophomore Tess Truxillo, senior Mary Martin Spinner, junior Savanna Leckner, senior Marquerite McPhillips and junior Anne Gonyea — and one statewide player of the year.
McPhillips, named the state’s best and The Charlotte Observer player of the year, had 23 goals and 13 assists.
And this Catholic team shut out its last seven opponents, dominating the most difficult part of its schedule.
Comeback athlete: Kelley Tarpley, Ardrey Kell
Tarpley started out her career as a freshman and sophomore on the Knights’ powerhouse state soccer team. She was a part of Ardrey Kell’s 2023 state champion. But in 2025, Tarpley didn’t play soccer to focus on running track.
This season, she returned to the Knights’ team which looked to reach its third state championship game in five years. But when All-Observer star Makayla Rodriguez injured her knee in the fourth game of the season, Tarpley was thrust into a new role — primary scoring threat — which also brought constant double teams.
“It (was) definitely a lot harder,” she said. “But it’s just a challenge, nothing I (couldn’t) handle.”
Tarpley scored a team-high 15 goals and tied for a team-high five assists and led the Knights to a sixth straight conference championship and a berth in the N.C. 8A state quarterfinals.
Scholar-athlete: Caroline Mallard, Charlotte Country Day
A senior swimmer, Mallard finished one of the best athletic careers in school history in February.
She was a member of the Bucs’ 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle medley relay teams that set N.C. private school state records. This season, she was named first team all-conference in two events and second team all-conference in a third.
Mallard also won the 200-meter butterfly title at the 2025 Summer Junior Nationals.
A Purdue recruit who plays to study engineering, Mallard is Country Day’s Valedictorian and carries a cumulative GPA of 4.82.
