FRUITPORT – Kenzie Pate has been a dedicated and loyal athlete in the Fruitport High School sports program for all four years of high school.

She played four years of varsity soccer, three years of varsity basketball, and one year of varsity golf.

Through all of those seasons, despite all of her efforts, Pate never experienced a great deal of success, at least from a team perspective.

The Fruitport girls basketball team has been improving, but still posted losing records each year that Pate played.

The girls golf team also made progress, but has not been an area power.

The girls soccer team, meanwhile, struggled for each of the first three years that Pate was on the roster. The Trojans were 10-9-3  in her freshman season, 4-11-4 in her sophomore year and 8-10-2 in 2024.

The happy news is that Pate finally got the chance to be a champion in her final season of varsity sports, because the soccer team suddenly sprang to life this spring, posting a 13-7 record and winning the O-K Silver conference title.

Pate’s varsity career officially ended on Tuesday night, when the Trojans were eliminated from the Division 2 district tournament in a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to Allendale.

But the loss could not erase the success that the Trojans experienced, or the joy that Pate and her senior teammates felt in finally playing for a winner.

“I think our program has improved tremendously, especially compared to last season,” Pate said on Tuesday, shortly after the tough loss in districts. “We played to our best potential every game, and gave it our all, and that’s all I could ask for as a senior and captain of our team.”

The Trojans were bolstered this year by the addition of six very talented freshmen, five of whom were regularly in the starting lineup.

But Pate knows that the seniors played a very large leadership role, and thinks the effort they put in this year was an investment in a very bright future for Fruitport girls soccer.

The other seniors on the roster were Makayla Boelkins, Lainey Bol, Kendal Kolberg, McKenzie Beardsley and Kendalynn Gangwer.

The great future they helped pave the way for could begin next year, when the Trojans return 15 players from the current roster.

“I think the seniors provided a huge stepping stone toward the future of the success of Fruitport girls soccer,” Pate said. “Winning the conference championship was huge, something that hadn’t been done in such a long time. Now we know that the girls can keep going farther, and I couldn’t be more proud of them:”

Fruitport head coach Kyle Hall, who just finished his second year on the job, said Pate played a huge leadership role, particularly with the much younger players.

“She’s always doing the right thing, on and off the field,” the coach said about Pate. “They don’t make kids better than that. She stepped up in bridging that gap between younger and older girls. She made sure that everyone was included. which helped us have success.”

Pate understands how important that role was to the team.

“It meant a lot being able to be kind of a leader who helped make sure everyone was connecting,” she said. “I think we did a really good job of including everyone and being fair to everyone. We were a really strongly bonded team because of that.”

Beyond leadership, Pate played a very key role on the field, helping the Trojans win a lot of games.

While the freshmen provided a lot of the scoring punch, the fact is that the Trojans won a lot of close games – six, to be exact – by two goals or less.

A major strength was the back defensive line, which kept opponents from mounting much of an attack on the Fruitport goal in a lot of big games.

Pate was the senior on that back line, serving alongside junior Gracelynn Olson, sophomore Izzy Hanson-Wilbur and freshman Maycee Hall.

“It has meant a lot to me to be part of the defense,” she said. “I have been on the defensive line since freshman year, but this year we had the best chemistry as whole back there that I have ever seen.

“We all just respect one another, on and off the field, and I’m so proud of each and every one of them and what we accomplished. When mistakes happened, we would pick each other right back up. We didn’t let that negative energy get to our heads and destroy us individually. I’ve been so blessed to be a part of our defense.”

For most of her career, Pate suffered the fate of the dedicated defender – she never got the chance to score a goal and enjoy the limelight that the point-producers are used to.

But that changed on May 8 in an 8-0 victory over Kelloggsville, when she scored her one and only varsity goal.

History may not say much about the huge defensive or leadership role that Pate played for the 2025 Trojans, because those are intangibles. But her name will forever be recorded as a goal scorer for the team that won the conference title.

“When we started the second half, my coach put me and Izzy up at forward,” Pate said. “I knew deep down that it was going to be one of us to score that last goal.

“Izzy shot the ball and it went out of the goalie’s hands, so I just stepped in and tapped it in. I was excited that I got my first goal, but I was also very excited that it was because of Izzy. We already had good chemistry in the back, and being able to use it anywhere was just a great thing

“I celebrated with my team, and even though it was my goal, I would not have been able to get that if it weren’t for my whole team, because soccer is a whole team effort. I’m so grateful for everyone that I had the opportunity to play with.”