Jayla Blue (left) and Tyler Roth of Bearden are the 2025 5Star Preps Girls Soccer Players of the Year. (Photo by Tammy Kregel)
BY DAVE LINK
Bearden coach Ryan Radcliffe recalls five years ago, seeing the future of his girls’ soccer program.
It was the 2021 season, and Radcliffe would see eighth graders Tyler Roth and Jayla Blue standing by the field, cheering for their older sisters playing for the Lady Bulldogs.
Roth was watching sister Becca, a Bearden senior in 2021-22, while Jayla was watching sister Nyla, a junior that year.
The Blue and Roth sisters played big roles in the Lady Bulldogs’ winning four Class AAA state championships with a runner-up finish from 2021-25. Their legacies will last forever.
Jayla Blue recently signed scholarship papers to play soccer with Nyla at Tennessee, and Tyler signed to play with Becca at Western Kentucky.
Blue and Roth provided much of the offensive force behind Bearden’s 2025 state championship team, which beat Germantown Houston 1-0 in overtime in the title match.
“We talked about it at signing day with both of them,” Radcliffe said, “how a few years ago, I remember watching film of a Farragut game when Tyler and Jayla were both eighth graders.
“We were watching film in the classroom, and the girls started cracking up because there were these two little kids behind the goal, like jumping up and down after we scored. And it was Tyler and Jayla in their eighth-grade year. It was kind of a full-circle moment, their signing to play college soccer with their sisters, and both high-level Division I college soccer ranks.”
Tyler Roth and Jayla Blue, the 5Star Preps Co-Players of the Year, were two of Bearden’s team captains in 2025 along with senior defender Emma Rainey, a 5Star Preps first-team player and Carson-Newman soccer signee.
The Lady Bulldogs barely missed going 5-for-5 in state championship matches the past five seasons, losing to Houston in a penalty-kick shootout in the 2024 title game.
Tyler Roth, however, missed the 2024 season with a knee injury sustained in club soccer that year, and her absence may have been the difference in Bearden’s shootout loss to Houston in the 2024 final.
Radcliffe has heard such speculation.
His response?
“I’m like, ‘No, we did have a good enough team (in 2024),’” Radcliffe said, “but part of me was like, ‘What if we did have Tyler?’”
One can always wonder.
Each was worthy of player-of-the-year honors in 2025.
Amazingly, their offensive statistics mirror each other, and they were voted Co-District 4-AAA Most Valuable Players by the coaches.
Blue, the 5Star Preps Player of the Year in 2024, had 33 goals and 17 assists this past season, while Roth had 17 goals and 33 assists.
“You have one who’s literally one of the most prolific goal scorers in Tennessee,” Radcliffe said, “but then the other one probably sets up all of her goals.”
Blue, a true striker, set the school record for career goals this year with 135. She set the single-season record as a junior with 45 – breaking the record of 41 set by Brinley Murphy (in 2022) and Amy Porter (in 2008).
Murphy held the career record of 110 before Blue broke it.
“I think if you’d describe Jayla,” Radcliffe said, “she’s a natural goal scorer, which in the girls’ game, it’s rare to kind of have that. When you have somebody who just has the nose for goals, I think it’s a game changer and a difference maker, and that’s how she’s made a name for herself. I think it’s why she’s been so highly recruited.”
Blue’s fewer goals this season than last was expected because she became the focal point of opposing defenses every match.
“Losing a big senior class like we did last year (2024),” Radcliffe said, “and (Blue) coming in and not being a name people don’t know, we talked over and over all season about what are we going to do if Jayla gets double teamed and triple teamed, and she did every game almost and still produced 33 goals. Coming off a career-record year is pretty unreal, and I think it’s one of the big reasons we came away with the championship.”
Blue is the daughter of former UT Lady Vols basketball standout Kristen “Ace” Clement and her husband, Avery Blue, who played football at Soddy-Daisy High and Carson-Newman.
“She’s going to the University of Tennessee for a reason, and I think she’s going to thrive there,” Radcliffe said. “Her genetics are unreal. Both of these two girls (Roth and Blue), I’d say they’re a product of their environment.”
The Roth sisters are daughters of Webb School of Knoxville girls’ coach Elaine Roth, who led the Lady Spartans to their second straight Division II-AA state championship match this year.
Tyler showed no signs of a knee injury when she returned to action this year.
Quite the opposite. Roth put her blazing speed and soccer skills on display while setting a program record for assists in a season (33).
“An ACL in a lot of athletes can be kind of career damaging,” Radcliffe said. “You see a lot of athletes who try to come back from an ACL and they’re never the same, whether it’s explosiveness or whatever that may be, but holy crap, what a year she had. You look at Tyler, she’s not going to overwhelm you with her physicality, her outward appearance, but I think she’s a coach’s dream to have on the field. She does all the little things that you ask for.”
Her work ethic is top notch. Radcliffe said he sometimes encouraged Roth to take the day off practice, but she declined.
“She would always say, ‘No, I took plenty of time off last year,” Radcliffe said. “That’s her mentality, and I think that’s what separates both of them, but Tyler especially, is her mentality. Obviously having a mom who’s a coach has pushed her to the level she’s gotten to. She just knows how to produce and she has a winning mentality that I think is her separation. I think her being a leader for us was huge this year as well.”
Roth’s corner kicks and free kicks almost never missed their marks.
“She strikes the ball so well, and her sister is similar,” Radcliffe said. “They strike the ball better than most girls that you see, and that’s just coming down to being a coach’s kid. They’ve been taught the right technique from an early age, and you can really see it. I think for Tyler’s sake, she does so many things that oftentimes go unnoticed, the way that she strikes the ball.
“I think she and Jayla are not gym rats, but field rats, and it’s a cool message to younger players that if you want to get to the level of those two, well, look how much time they’re on the field. I think there were many weekends and after practices when we were taking time off and those two were at the field.”
PAST RECIPIENTS
2024 — Jayla Blue (Bearden)
2023 — Nyla Blue (Bearden), Alivia Stott (Bearden)
2022 — Brinley Murphy (Bearden)
2021 — Brinley Murphy (Bearden)
2020 — Brinley Murphy (Bearden), Kayla Barr (Maryville)
2019 — Reyna Coston (Maryville)
2018 — Abbey Kolarik (Maryville)