Helena Capital’s Owen Jenkins named Montana boys soccer player of the year

Owen Jenkins did more than anchor Helena Capital’s back line last season. The Bruins goalkeeper helped carry the Class AA program to the state semifinals, and now his performance has put a Helena athlete in the center of Montana soccer’s statewide conversation.

Gatorade named Jenkins the 2025-26 Montana Boys Soccer Player of the Year on June 12, 2026, recognizing the Capital High School senior in its 41st year honoring high school athletes. Jenkins finished the season with eight shutouts, only 12 goals allowed, one goal scored and three assists from the goalkeeper position, a rare stat line that shows he was not just stopping shots but helping shape the Bruins’ attack from the back.

The award also underscores how far Jenkins has climbed beyond the Western AA Conference. He was named the conference’s player of the year, then added a statewide honor that carries weight with college coaches because it blends production, consistency and versatility. Jenkins’ spring trip to Spain with the Olympic Development Program National Team made him only the second boys player in Montana history to reach that level, a milestone that places him in a much larger development pipeline than most high school keepers ever see.

His next step is already set. Jenkins signed a written letter of athletic aid to play at Seattle Pacific University in the fall. The school competes in NCAA Division II in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, and its soccer teams play at Interbay Soccer Stadium in Seattle, giving Jenkins a path into a college program with an established national profile.

The academic side of the honor matched the athletic one. Jenkins carried a 3.71 grade-point average, is a member of Capital’s National Honor Society, and has volunteered as a peer tutor, youth goalie coach and helper at school movie nights. That combination of production, leadership and service is exactly the kind of profile colleges and award panels often look for when they talk about a complete student-athlete.

Jenkins is the third Capital player to win the Montana boys soccer Gatorade honor, joining Ryan Palmer, who won for 2003-04, and Adam Clinch, who won for 2006-07. For Helena, that lineage matters. Montana high school soccer was first sanctioned in the 1991-92 school year, when six schools played in the inaugural interscholastic season, and the Bruins have turned that still relatively young state tradition into a program that keeps producing statewide standouts.