Sadie Says - Take the Road to Collegiate Athletics

If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I’m quite possibly the most indecisive person on the planet. No matter if it’s my lunch order, how to plan out my afternoon, or what show to watch, I struggle with getting the ball moving and putting things into place.

It was never a hard decision to play soccer in college – I had known I couldn’t give soccer up that early on. It was logical to continue onwards, as I couldn’t imagine a world in which I wasn’t playing soccer at the next level. However, the decision of WHERE to play college soccer was surely the most difficult choice I have ever made in my entire life.

I’ve been playing soccer since age four or five. Although I didn’t know it at the time, soccer would become the driving force in my life and my escape from everything else plaguing me in life.

Soccer forged deep connections in my life with its ability to bring me close to my family and my best friends. I played recreational soccer for three years under my dad, who is one of my biggest role models. Getting that experience with him laid the foundation for our close-knit relationship, and it would always give us a common love for the world’s greatest game.

I went on to play club soccer at my second home, Strikers Fox Valley. This club saw my total evolution as both a player and a person. It shaped me into the leader I am today, with the attentiveness and care of the coaching staff, who saw my full potential, and continued to push me daily.

Baby Sadie! Taking it seriously from a young age!

As our team, and my overall motivation, progressed, I knew, without a doubt, that I wanted to pursue collegiate athletics. However, the recruiting process was one of much strife; it could be disheartening to reach out to programs and be met with silence or disinterest.

I knew the right place was out there somewhere; I just had to stay the course to find it.

Since sophomore year, I had been aware of Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. From my initial visit to the school, meeting the coach and the team, I was convinced that I would play there. I felt at home with the players and looked up to them. They created a welcoming community that gave me hope about the college experience.

I was full steam ahead on Carthage, excitedly telling all my friends and family about this incredible school that offered me the opportunity to play on a close-knit team at a high level, less than two hours from home. It seemed almost too good to be true.

Fast forward to December of 2022, where I visited Orlando, Florida with my club soccer team to play three games in the National League, one of the most prestigious leagues in girls’ club soccer at the time.

National League @ ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex

Besides from being one of the best trips of my life, the Carthage coach was attending some of my games. After the second game of the weekend, I was offered a position on Carthage’s team, and with that, I was ecstatic.

Little did I know, that same weekend, the Saint Mary’s coach had also been in attendance at my games, and he was interested in my play. A few weeks after that Orlando tournament, he reached out over email, and I was introduced to my future home.

I had never heard of this smaller school in Winona, Minnesota, but my dad urged me to try it out and at least visit.

That visit would go on to make the most difficult decision for me, as I fell in love with the coach’s energy, the team atmosphere, and the beauty of the campus.

How could I possibly decide between what seemed to be my dream school, and this interloper, full of bluffs, Caribou coffee, and subzero temperatures?

While I won’t bore you with my entire thought process, Saint Mary’s started to edge Carthage out a day at a time. With the possibility of more playing time as a freshman, an expansive Sports Management program, the further distance from home, nicer dorms, (the list continues), I eventually made the terrifying decision to pick that random small school in Minnesota.

Here I am! Thriving at that random small school in MN!

And here we are now! I won’t say that my freshman college soccer season was perfect – it wasn’t. It was riddled with injuries, team frustrations, mismanagement of expectations, and dysfunction, but it was also the most rewarding season of my life.

I proved to myself that I could play at the collegiate level, and I could make an impact there. No matter if I was a bench player, I could come up in big moments and make a difference on the game.

A hasty, last-minute substitution in one MIAC game, for example, resulted in a big-time goal for me- the first of my collegiate career and a saving grace to a game we had been struggling in up until that point (Did we then end up then losing 2-1? Perhaps!).

I wish I could tell my younger self just how far she’ll go, and how many leaps and bounds she’ll end up taking, even if the decisions and the steps to get there terrify her. I want to reassure her that by simply staying the course and choosing joy, two of my parents’ favorite mantras, will result in unprecedented adventures.

Challenge yourself, prove others wrong, and experience all that life has to give you. Take the road to collegiate athletics, and do it for yourself – you don’t have anything to lose.