The Ernest Righetti High School girls’ soccer team is undefeated this season, and it could have something to do with the fact that the team is made up of veteran players who’ve been working the ball around the field together since they were kids.
Attacking center midfielder Megan Stevens said it’s an honor for her to end her senior year with all of her best friends on the pitch.
“The relationship I have with these girls is amazing,” Stevens said. “The friendships we have off the field show on the field.”
Stevens and her teammates have so far won seven games and tied two. Righetti’s new varsity coach, Adam McEvoy said Stevens is a pretty big reason for the team’s successes.
“She’s pretty much the engine of the team, everything goes through her,” McEvoy said. “If she’s having a good game, then the attackers are having a really good game.”
Everything that moves from the defensive half of the field to the attacking half runs through Stevens, who McEvoy said is intelligent with great foot skills and vision. He said she sees passing lanes between defenders that nobody sees and “dances through players.”
And although, she doesn’t have a slew of goals next to her name on the score sheet, McEvoy said most of the goals that the team scores start with her.
Stevens has played varsity all four years, and in those years she’s developed into the go-to player on the team, someone that recieves and distributes, moving the team forward. She said she’s always been the player behind the scenes, doing the work that the team needs to get from one end of the field to the other, but now she has the confidence to be that player who makes the final pass “when someone else needs to score a goal.”
When she’s not playing with her crew of besties on the Righetti pitch—outside of the high school soccer season—she plays club ball. Most recently, she was making two hour drives twice a week to make practices with the Camarillo Eagles, which for her was totally worth the time sacrifice.
“That team has only made me better,” Stevens said. “It’s not just a sport for me, it’s a passion, and I’m willing to do anything to make [myself] better.”
That passion is something she’s planning to bring to CSU Hayward’s team in the fall. Although, she hasn’t signed yet, she did make a verbal commitment to the team and is planning on signing in February. She would get a partial-ride scholarship out of the deal.
“I never expected to have the opportunities I’ve been given,” Stevens said. “It’s been an amazing ride.”
This article appears in Jan 15-22, 2015.