The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Temporary Setback: Award-winning soccer player Aly Wagner has been sidelined for a few weeks following knee surgery, but is determined to keep playing hard upon her return to the game.

Local soccer jock beats odds to win national sports award

Sports journalists honor Presentation senior for athletic and academic skills

By Christine M. Lias

When she got the phone call, Aly Wagner thought nothing much of the news. Wagner's mother told her that she had just won a national soccer award from a sports drink company. Big deal.

"I didn't really understand how huge the award was or its extent," Wagner said.

Big deal, indeed. Named the national high school girls' soccer player of the year by Gatorade Circle of Champions, the Presentation High School senior beat out more than 200,000 young women nationwide.

"It's very overwhelming. I would never have expected to win something like this," Wagner said.

This is the first year that the Circle of Champions has honored a girl soccer player. Wagner, a 17-year-old Willow Glen resident, is one of about a dozen California high school students ever to have received a Circle of Champions prize, which has been awarded since about 1985.

Ten national and regional sports journalists selected Wagner for her soccer talent and academic performance. Presentation Panthers Coach Mani Hernandez had nominated her for the award.

Wagner maintains a perfect 4.0 GPA at Presentation and is a member of the National Honor Society. She scored a 1,220 out of a possible 1,600 on the SAT. And she is involved with the school's environmental club and various food and toy drives.

Wagner's soccer buzz came at an early age. At age 5, she used to watch her older sister play. That sparked the desire to, as she puts it, just start kicking the ball around.

Wagner was hooked. She has played soccer continuously for more than 10 years and practices every day.

"I'm never not playing soccer," Wagner said. "School and soccer--it's all I do."

Hernandez has called Wagner a "once-in-a-lifetime" player. The Panthers have held two consecutive state Interscholastic Federation titles and hope for a third in March.

"She's the finest player I've ever coached. I knew the moment I saw her play that she'd be special," Hernandez said. "What separates Aly from the rest are her tremendous skills and her competitive nature. Aly is her own biggest critic. She always strives to do better, and I doubt I'll ever coach an athlete of her magnitude again."

Wagner said she does not have a role model. Rather, she likes to take "bits and pieces of what I respect from a lot of people and put them together."

However, she does greatly admire Brandi Chastain, assistant soccer coach at Santa Clara University and former Olympian. Both Wagner and Chastain have suffered at least one knee injury, and Wagner has had three knee surgeries, the most recent of which is keeping her out of the game for a few weeks.

Wagner recently completed training with the Under-20 United States National Team at the Olympic Training Center in San Diego. Ironically, she was in training when she heard about the Circle of Champions award.

Wagner hopes to go on to Santa Clara University in the fall and study electrical engineering. She said she will "definitely" continue to play soccer.

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