Sammi Jo Payne: The Clarence Kid Who’s Just Getting Started

There is a particular type of athlete that Western New York seems to produce in especially concentrated form — the multi-sport natural who excels at virtually everything she tries, dominates her hometown competition, and then quietly goes out and earns recognition on a national stage. Sammi Jo Payne, the forward from Clarence, New York, is about as clear an example of that type as you’re likely to find. A two-time All-State soccer player, an East All-America Game participant, a member of the US Olympic Development Program National Team, and a flag football standout who helped her school win sectional titles — Payne arrived at college already steeped in winning, and has now taken her game to the Atlantic American Conference level at Florida Atlantic University, where she is pushing for a bigger role heading into her third collegiate season.

Roots in Clarence, New York

Sammi Jo Payne grew up in Clarence, a prosperous suburb located in Erie County, New York, about 15 miles east of Buffalo. It is the kind of place where Friday night athletics matter, where community pride runs through local sports, and where a talented young athlete can develop in a supportive environment with serious competition close at hand. Her parents are Susan and Frank Payne, and the family’s connections to elite competition run deeper than just soccer: her father Frank was among the ownership group of Authentic, the 2020 Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic champion — one of the most decorated racehorses in the country that year. Frank also played college football and basketball at Brockport State, so the athletic gene pool in the Payne household is, to put it mildly, well-stocked.

Sammi Jo is the younger of two daughters. Her older sister Payton played Division I soccer at Eastern Kentucky University, where she was a midfielder with the Colonels. Growing up playing alongside and against each other, the two sisters forged the kind of competitive dynamic that only siblings who both share a passion for the same sport can develop. By the time Sammi Jo was earning All-State honors at Clarence, Payton was already two years into her college career — a living example of what the road ahead looked like, and a built-in training partner who pushed her little sister to be better.

Clarence Central High School: Building a Legacy

Clarence Central High School has a long tradition of producing Division I soccer talent, and Sammi Jo Payne added her name to that list in emphatic fashion over four varsity years. As a forward, she was the engine of the Clarence attack — fast, instinctive, and difficult to contain in open space. The Clarence Bee, the local paper that has covered Red Devils athletics for decades, named her co-Female Athlete of the Year for 2023–24, a recognition that reflected not just her soccer ability but her impact across multiple sports.

In her senior season, Payne tallied 20 goals and three assists — a dominant offensive output in a competitive Class AA environment. That production earned her First Team All-State honors from the New York State sportswriters, a recognition she was clearly moved by. “When I heard I was first team All-State I was very grateful and excited,” she said at the time. “I told my parents and they were so proud of me. It makes me so fortunate I get to share my happiness with the people I love.” It was the kind of quote that reflected her character well: deeply aware of the people around her, more grateful than boastful, focused on shared experience over personal glory.

Her All-State recognition in 2023 was actually her second such honor — she had also received All-State recognition in 2022, making her a two-time honoree. She was additionally a two-time All-WNY (All-Western New York) selection, earning All-Region honors in 2022, and was named to the 2023 All-American High School Team. The US Coaches Association recognized her as an All-East Region Team selection in both 2022 and 2023. She was the leading scorer in Class AA soccer and earned Clarence’s distinction as a program that reliably sends players to the next level.

Club Soccer: WNY Flash and National Recognition

Alongside her high school career, Payne developed her game at the club level with Western New York Flash, one of the most respected ECNL programs in the country. The Flash have a long history of player development and national competition, and playing within that environment — against top ECNL competition across the country — gave Payne a consistent platform to be seen by college coaches and national scouts alike.

She earned ECNL First Team All-Conference recognition in the New England conference, and later First Team All-Conference in the Ohio Valley — demonstrating her ability to perform at the highest levels of club play regardless of the competition. Her ECNL performances led to selection for the US Club Soccer id2 Program, which operates as a national identification and development pipeline with direct ties to US Soccer’s youth national team structure. The id2 Selection process puts the country’s most promising players in front of national-level scouts, and Payne was selected to that team — a meaningful acknowledgment of her standing among the elite players in her age group nationally.

From there, her national recognition continued to climb. She earned an invitation to the US Women’s National Training Center, was selected to the Olympic Development Program Region 1 Team, and — the pinnacle of that pathway — earned a spot on the ODP National Team, with a trip to Iceland as part of that program. The ODP National Team represents the highest tier of the youth identification pipeline outside of the full youth national team, and Payne’s inclusion in it placed her among the very best players in her class in the United States.

She was also spotlighted in the ECNL’s own content — a 2023 ECNL Spotlight video featured Payne talking about her teammates and her time with the WNY Flash, reflecting the genuine affection she had for her club environment and the friendships built through it.

A True Multi-Sport Athlete

While soccer was always Payne’s primary sport, she was no passenger in the other athletic arenas at Clarence. She holds six varsity records in track and field at Clarence Central — a collection that speaks to her raw athleticism. Her track exploits were serious: she was the Section VI champion in the indoor 300 meters in 2022, set a varsity school record in the indoor 300-meter dash with a time of 41.68 seconds, and anchored Clarence’s Section VI 4×400 relay championship team with a 57-second split. She competed at the state meet in track. The Clarence Bee described her as a player whose speed “can’t be taught” — an athlete who then put in the work to learn how to use it.

In the spring of 2024, Payne was also a key contributor on Clarence’s flag football team — one of the most successful in Section VI. Playing as the running back alongside quarterback Ella Corry in what opposing coaches described as a difficult duo to account for, Payne ran for 77 yards and a touchdown in Clarence’s 33-6 Section VI Division 1 championship victory over Jamestown at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park — home of the Buffalo Bills. Jamestown’s head coach was blunt in his assessment afterward: “No. 4 was just really fast and had some really good moves.” Payne was named to the inaugural All-Bee Flag Football First Team on offense — a fitting honor for someone whose speed and athleticism translated seamlessly across sports.

She was also a Clarence Scholar Athlete and earned the school’s Most Athletic Female of the Year distinction, a recognition that affirmed what anyone watching her compete already knew.

Choosing the University of South Florida

When it came time to commit to a college program, the recruiting process was, by her own account, stressful at times — the waiting, the prospect camps, the need to keep performing in front of coaches. But Payne navigated it with the patience she had developed as a finisher, someone who knows how to wait for her moment and then strike.

She signed her letter of intent to play at the University of South Florida in Tampa, a program competing in the American Athletic Conference. When she made her campus visit, the decision crystallized quickly. “When I first visited the school, I immediately felt like I belonged and that I should go there,” she said. “When I got to see the environment and staff in the soccer program it just made me even more excited. The people there were so welcoming.” For a player who had spent her whole life in Western New York, the chance to play Division I soccer in Tampa under a program with a solid AAC record was everything she had worked toward.

Freshman Year at USF (2024)

Payne arrived at the University of South Florida as a freshman forward in the fall of 2024, wearing number 34. The Bulls squad she joined was a competitive one in the American Athletic Conference, and as is common for freshmen forwards at the Division I level, her first season was about acclimating to the pace and physicality of college soccer. She appeared in three matches over the course of the season, logging 49 minutes total and appearing in two early-season shutout wins. It was a modest statistical beginning — but the important work of that year was the immersion into a Division I training environment, the daily development, and the understanding of what it takes to compete consistently at this level.

By the end of the season, Payne had made the decision to enter the transfer portal, looking for a program where she could play a larger role and continue developing her game.

Transfer to Florida Atlantic University

Her next destination was Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, where she joined the Owls’ women’s soccer program as a sophomore transfer ahead of the 2025 season. FAU, also competing in the American Athletic Conference, was an established program under head coach Patrick Baker, and Payne was one of three key transfers who came into the program that year — alongside goalkeeper Megan Hogate and midfielder Lida Dodge — providing experienced depth to complement an already experienced senior class.

The 2025 season represented a significant step forward. Wearing number 6, Payne appeared in all 19 of FAU’s matches off the bench — a testament to the coaching staff’s confidence in her as a consistent contributor. She accumulated 448 minutes on the season, a significant increase from her freshman year at USF. Highlights of her campaign included a 36-minute stretch in FAU’s shutout victory over North Dakota State on September 14, one of her longest single-game appearances. Playing across a full 19-game schedule in a competitive AAC environment, she gained invaluable experience and demonstrated that she was capable of contributing meaningfully at this level.

FAU’s schedule in 2025 was a demanding one, featuring in-state matchups against UCF, Miami, FIU, Jacksonville, FGCU, and Florida State, along with a full slate of AAC conference play. The American Conference tournament ran in November, and the experience of competing in that environment game after game — against programs with depth, athleticism, and tactical sophistication — is exactly the kind of environment that accelerates development for a young forward still finding her footing at the college level.

What Comes Next

Heading into what will be her junior season, Sammi Jo Payne is still in the early chapters of her collegiate story. At 5-foot-9, with genuine pace, a nose for goal, and the technical development that comes from years of high-level ECNL competition and national team identification, she has the physical tools to make an impact as a starter. The question for the coming season is whether she can translate her accumulated college experience — nearly 500 career minutes across two programs — into the kind of consistent, sharp performances that a starting forward at the AAC level needs to deliver.

The foundation is there. A player who posted 20 goals in a competitive Class AA high school senior season, who was good enough for the ODP National Team and the East All-America Game, and who has now played in a full 19-game Division I season doesn’t lack for ability. What she is building right now is the particular confidence that comes from being the player a college coaching staff trusts in big moments — the kind of trust you earn through training, through consistency, and through showing up every day ready to compete.

Given everything Sammi Jo Payne has already accomplished before her 21st birthday, it would be a mistake to bet against her.

Sammi Jo Payne wears number 6 for Florida Atlantic University women’s soccer. Instagram: @sammijopayne.