If there’s one thing Drew Knotts is grateful for, it’s that her pageant dresses have to be long ones.
They hide all of the bruises on her legs that come from playing soccer. Some of her games have happened while she was active on the Plant City pageant circuit.
This year, in particular, already has been a good one for Knotts in both areas: She was crowned queen of the Junior Royalty Pageant on Jan. 11, and finished soccer season Jan. 23 with 10 goals in 15 games. Although she loves donning a dress and strutting her stuff on-stage, Knotts was born to be an athlete.
HIT THE GROUND RUNNING
“Ever since she could walk, she could run,” Jeanne Knotts, Drew’s mother, says.
And ever since Knotts could run, she could run fast. Although some boys gave her a hard time for having a “boy” name, she developed a reputation for running faster than all of them when she was in elementary school. This, in turn, led to her earning a reputation for running faster than all of their fathers at her brother’s baseball games.
She started playing sports at 4 years old and tried several of them: basketball, flag football, gymnastics, tennis, soccer, softball and swimming. As a runner, she felt soccer was the best fit.
“All those other sports were fun, but I really loved soccer,” Knotts says.
She tried out for the Plant City Lancers club team at 9 years old and remained with the club until it merged with Lakeland’s club team last year. After leaving the Lancers, she tried out for the Brandon Flames and made the Elite Clubs National League 14 and under team — one of only two programs in Florida. This involved regular out-of-state travel, taking her as far away as Virginia and Texas.
Last year, she tried for Plant City High School’s team and made the cut, joining many of the girls with whom she had played with on other teams, and the Lady Raiders’ strong senior core.
“It’s scary, as a freshman, to come in with a bunch of seniors,” Knotts says. “But, they were so nice to me. They treated me really well.”
Finishing in the top four in team scoring will help any freshman get some respect from the older kids, too. And Knotts, the only non-senior to score at least 10 goals, did it while missing almost an entire month of action.
“I played in the King game (Dec. 5), and was diagnosed with mono the next week,” Knotts says. “I missed the next four games.”
With the winter break, that put her out of action until the Jan. 3 Viking Tournament at Lakeland Christian School. In their only game, a 6-1 loss to the host, Knotts scored the team’s only goal after a feed from Stephanie Galloway.
Other than illness, the only other thing that can keep Knotts out of a game is a pageant appearance.
FAMILY TRADITION
Knotts has Plant City roots that go back four generations. Her mother was Jeanne Redman before she married Andrew Knotts — and some of these roots can be traced to the Florida Strawberry Festival queen pageant. Her grandmother, Ruby Jean Redman, won the pageant in 1953. Her cousin, Chelsea Bowden, won in 2012. Her mother, Jeanne, also once competed for the crown.
So, getting Drew involved in Plant City pageants was only natural. She got a plethora of help from her family members, who coached her with her public speaking, confidence and all the skills she needed to wow the judges.
After her attempt at winning Junior Royalty Baroness was unsuccessful, she won Duchess at 9 years old. She also won the title of First Maid in Little Miss Plant City that year, thanks in part to a speech about beating those boys in those elementary school footraces. She won Princess in 2011, at age 12, and aimed to take the Queen’s crown this year.
The only catch was that this year’s Junior Royalty Pageant happened on the night of the first game of the soccer district tournament.
“We had three girls from the team make the top five in the Queen division,” Knotts says. “We had to miss the first district game, but we’re glad we didn’t miss it for nothing.”
The other Lady Raiders who competed were runner-up Deanna Rodriguez and court member Ariel Navarette.
“My favorite thing about these pageants is getting to meet new people,” Knotts says. “You don’t really get to sit next to people that you know, in these pageants, so you get to talk to new people.”
Next up on her list will be the high school’s Calendar Girls competition and the Florida Strawberry Festival pageant, which she hopes to compete in as a junior or senior. After all, somebody has to keep the family tradition going.
OFFSEASON PLANS
With time off from Lady Raiders soccer and the pageant circuit, Knotts plans to play more soccer and keep as busy as she can.
When she’s not with her family, going to cousins’ houses for dinner during the week and enjoying a big group lunch on Sundays, Knotts is active in the youth group at Plant City’s First Baptist Church. She enjoys helping those who are less fortunate and even did so in Haiti last summer.
“We worked with kids in an orphanage, and they were so sweet,” Knotts says. “They just loved you and wanted you to pick them up.”
Knotts and her church group visited the country on a missions trip, but she couldn’t pass up on the chance to play soccer when it arose.
“I’ve never seen kids that could play soccer so well in my life,” she says.
These talented kids chose Knotts for their team in a pick-up game against the rest of the church group. It was about as unfair as Spain playing the U.S. men’s team, but everyone still had fun.
To keep her game up, Knotts will keep playing with the Flames and travel to Fort Worth, Texas, next month to play in a college showcase. It’ll take her mind off of the loss to Seminole in the regional tournament, but Knotts has little to worry about: She has three years left, and her career just got off to a great start.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
REGIONALS RECAP
Plant City hosted Seminole on Jan. 23, and many expected the Lady Raiders’ high-powered attack to take the team to states. But, it was not meant to be.
Seminole took advantage of a slow Plant City start and went ahead, 1-0, going into the second half. Stephanie Galloway tied the game at 1-1 after the water break, and Jennifer Ruiz put the Lady Raiders ahead shortly afterward. But, the Lady Warhawks quickly answered by converting on a corner kick and a free kick.