Unstoppable: Thunder Ridge’s Kaden Palmer was a force for the Titans
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EDITOR’S NOTE: The East Idaho Sports team has selected a group of fall sports season award winners — players and teams of the year. The award winners will be announced in a continuing series.
IDAHO FALLS – Senior seasons are meant to be special.
Thunder Ridge senior Kaden Palmer has been a varsity soccer player for all four years and been a part of the Titans’ journey to the past four state tournaments.
That alone should earn him some recognition.
But this season it took more to earn EastIdahoNews.com Boys Soccer Player of the Year.
“This year he elevated not only himself, but he elevated the whole team,” Thunder Ridge coach Logan Murri said. “Just his absolute drive and passion he played with this year made him essentially unstoppable.”
Unstoppable may be the best way to describe Palmer, who led 6A with 26 goals and was also among leaders with 16 assists.
Murri noted that conference teams would typically have two defenders focused on Palmer.
“They literally game-planned against him and he still was scoring two sometimes three goals a game,” Murri said.
Palmer has always had the potential to be a prolific goal scorer, Murri said, but Palmer put the work in this past offseason, working in the gym and training hard for senior season.
“He became quicker, stronger and, as a result, his performance this year was just top-notch,” Murri said.
It didn’t take long to see the results of offseason training.
In the second game of the year, Thunder Ridge faced Mountain View and was down at the half. Palmer went on to score a hat trick and the Titans won 3-2.
“He just dribbled through defenders and they couldn’t stop him,” Murri said.
Unstoppable.
The Titans finished the season 17-3-1 and have won 60 matches over the past four years.
Palmer, a team captain, was named All-State first-team this season for his scoring prowess.
But there was always more.
“He was a leader and was able to elevate a lot of his teammates,” Murri said, adding, “Kaden scored goals that he had no business scoring all season.”
And that proved an unstoppable combination.