Lake Forest seniors'
moments won’t ever fade
By Bill McLean
Former Lake Forest star midfielder/forward Delaney Williams placed her hands on then-freshman goalkeeper Sophia DiVagno, locked eyes on the Scouts rookie’s eyes and blurted, “You’ve got this!”
The soccer scene unfolded in the spring of 2017, moments before the PK session to unknot a 1-1 tie in the PepsiCo Showdown final between seventh-seeded Lake Forest and St. Charles North at DePaul University. SCN was the heavy favorite, the Mike Tyson in his prime vs. the gulping pugilist in his main event debut.
Center-midfielder Ingrid Falls, another Scouts freshman three springs ago, had scored in regulation following a shot from Williams that ricocheted off the North Stars’ keeper.
St. Charles North, alas, escaped with a victory and edged a Lake Fores squad featuring seven — seven! — frosh starters before a packed, raucous crowd that often drowned out the clatter generated by “L” trains in the neighborhood.
“What a great teammate, a great motivator,” the University of Dayton-bound DiVagno said of Williams (Class of 2017), now a basketball point guard and a senior-to-be at Wittenberg (Ohio) University. “Delaney’s spirits were always high.
“Yes, we lost,” the 2020 tri-captain added, “but we played well in a cool setting against a great team. How we played that day, against so many older players, gave us confidence.”
Lake Forest girls soccer coach Ty Stuckslager asked each of this spring’s seniors — all 14 of them, an unusually high number — to pick her favorite memory as a member of the program.
“Many of them,” Stuckslager reported, “chose that PepsiCo Showdown final. That crowd was fantastic; none of our girls, I believe, had ever competed in front of that many people. Big game, big stage, tremendous atmosphere. It was a great game and a great experience.”
One senior’s top recollection wasn’t particularly specific.
And it made Stuckslager smile.
“She said her favorite highlight in her career was anything Delaney did in a game,” the coach said. “Great kid, great competitor, great leader. Teammates loved Delaney and loved being around her.”
Season 2020 for Lake Forest’s program was supposed to be a partial reunion for a handful of seniors, The campaign had a super shot ending atop North Central College’s turf on what was supposed to be the final weekend of the Class 3A season on May 29 and 30.
But the pandemic halted the campaign before the March openers for all Illinois High School Association (IHSA) squads.
A handful of Lake Forest seniors — a talent-laden contingent that skipped the Scouts’ 2018 and ’19 seasons because of commitments to the now defunct U.S. Soccer Development Academy — missed out on the realistic chance this spring to capture the second state championship in program history after rejoining classmates from that ’17 crew.
Stuckslager’s Scouts took the Class AA title in 2014. A 5-foot-3 freshman named Delaney Williams bowed for a medal after Lake Forest’s shootout defeat of Normal West in the championship tilt.
“There’s been sadness,” said Stuckslager, who is a middle school math teacher at Lake Forest Country Day School. “The freshmen who played for us in 2017 brought energy and such a competitive zeal to every game. The girls in that group were thrilled to be a part of the program, and they couldn’t wait to play in school colors again this spring. They had a collective sense of ‘we.’
“Our practices in two preseason weeks were so darn competitive, so darn fun.”
Many of the players performed for the Lake Forest Soccer Association’s U13, U14 and U15 girls teams from 2014-16.
Those squads were also darn good.
Each team won a state championship. Seven current LF seniors suited up for all three state-title teams.
“Six of us first played together on a U8 team,” said forward Nicole Doucette, one of three Northwestern-bound booters (also Falls and striker Bridget Mitchell) among that promising troupe.
“We were all looking forward to competing together for one more season,” added Doucette, who netted the match-winning goal, with 30 ticks left in regulation, in LF’s 2-1 defeat of visiting Palatine in a Class 3A regional semifinal in ’17. “It would have been fun and exciting to see what our team’s all-around talent could’ve accomplished in the playoffs.”
The Scouts’ other seniors in ’20 are: forward and Johns Hopkins University recruit Elise Stanley; midfielder Alyssa Marquis; defender and 2019-20 student body president Sarah Bires; goalkeeper Sydney Fitzgerald; midfielder Katie Bondoc; defender and tri-captain Camy Esplin; forward Kate Gotta; midfielder Julia Loeger; forward Grace Hardy; and defender Ella Marquardt.
Forward/midfielder Alex Flynn would have been Stuckslager’s 15th senior in 2020 had she not graduated early; she attends Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.
“The seniors,” Stuckslager said, “took soccer seriously, but they didn’t take themselves seriously. All could laugh at themselves. If one made a mistake, like a bad trap, she’d never look to blame a teammate. Instead, she’d think or say, ‘Oh my gosh, what was I thinking?’”
Falls’ mind raced, all the way back to 2017, during a recent phone call. The playmaker with covetous vision relived her clutch goal in that PepsiCo Showdown final. But, true to form, she barely took credit for it because Williams had initiated the scoring sequence with a shot on goal.
“That was, without a doubt, a ‘team’ goal,” said Falls, adding she and the Scouts’ other frosh starters that spring considered themselves “little sisters.”
“It sure felt like a win to us, the loss to St. Charles North,” the Lake Bluff resident and future NU Wildcat continued. “We grew as a team from there, as players. Playing as well as we did against a team like St. Charles North lifted us, boosted all of us. Now, as seniors, 14 of us … crazy; that’s a crazy number for one team, isn’t it? We all have a really good sense of what leadership is. It would have been such a reward, being able to play this spring.”
Falls and the rest of her classmates turned in their uniforms in late May, but there’s hope they’ll get to don them at least one more time before attending that first class on that first day of college in the fall.
Maybe the team that earned State High School Soccer Coaches Association Academic All-America honors once again, will get the green light to kick it around in late June.
Or maybe in July.
From tears of sorrow to tears of joy?
Phase 4 in the Restore Illinois plan permits gatherings of 50 people or fewer. Advancing to that phase would allow LF to either convene a Blue & Gold intrasquad get-together or take on another prep team in a friendly.
“That’s the hope, and I’m sticking to it,” Stuckslager said. “I’m an eternal optimist.”
Stuckslager’s girls would likely blast their favorite warm-up song, Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby,” on a Phase 4 day. They’d sing along, too. Loudly. Louder-than-an-“L”-train-with-screeching-brakes loud.
“That’s part of what’s great about playing high school soccer — getting to enjoy bonding moments off the field and before games,” Stuckslager said. “You should hear their singing during bus rides. The volume … it gets up there.”
But the warblers in cleats and shin guards have never asked Stuckslager to accompany them for any song.
“That’s right,” the coach said. “It’s an intelligent group.”
moments won’t ever fade
By Bill McLean
Former Lake Forest star midfielder/forward Delaney Williams placed her hands on then-freshman goalkeeper Sophia DiVagno, locked eyes on the Scouts rookie’s eyes and blurted, “You’ve got this!”
The soccer scene unfolded in the spring of 2017, moments before the PK session to unknot a 1-1 tie in the PepsiCo Showdown final between seventh-seeded Lake Forest and St. Charles North at DePaul University. SCN was the heavy favorite, the Mike Tyson in his prime vs. the gulping pugilist in his main event debut.
Center-midfielder Ingrid Falls, another Scouts freshman three springs ago, had scored in regulation following a shot from Williams that ricocheted off the North Stars’ keeper.
St. Charles North, alas, escaped with a victory and edged a Lake Fores squad featuring seven — seven! — frosh starters before a packed, raucous crowd that often drowned out the clatter generated by “L” trains in the neighborhood.
“What a great teammate, a great motivator,” the University of Dayton-bound DiVagno said of Williams (Class of 2017), now a basketball point guard and a senior-to-be at Wittenberg (Ohio) University. “Delaney’s spirits were always high.
“Yes, we lost,” the 2020 tri-captain added, “but we played well in a cool setting against a great team. How we played that day, against so many older players, gave us confidence.”
Lake Forest girls soccer coach Ty Stuckslager asked each of this spring’s seniors — all 14 of them, an unusually high number — to pick her favorite memory as a member of the program.
“Many of them,” Stuckslager reported, “chose that PepsiCo Showdown final. That crowd was fantastic; none of our girls, I believe, had ever competed in front of that many people. Big game, big stage, tremendous atmosphere. It was a great game and a great experience.”
One senior’s top recollection wasn’t particularly specific.
And it made Stuckslager smile.
“She said her favorite highlight in her career was anything Delaney did in a game,” the coach said. “Great kid, great competitor, great leader. Teammates loved Delaney and loved being around her.”
Season 2020 for Lake Forest’s program was supposed to be a partial reunion for a handful of seniors, The campaign had a super shot ending atop North Central College’s turf on what was supposed to be the final weekend of the Class 3A season on May 29 and 30.
But the pandemic halted the campaign before the March openers for all Illinois High School Association (IHSA) squads.
A handful of Lake Forest seniors — a talent-laden contingent that skipped the Scouts’ 2018 and ’19 seasons because of commitments to the now defunct U.S. Soccer Development Academy — missed out on the realistic chance this spring to capture the second state championship in program history after rejoining classmates from that ’17 crew.
Stuckslager’s Scouts took the Class AA title in 2014. A 5-foot-3 freshman named Delaney Williams bowed for a medal after Lake Forest’s shootout defeat of Normal West in the championship tilt.
“There’s been sadness,” said Stuckslager, who is a middle school math teacher at Lake Forest Country Day School. “The freshmen who played for us in 2017 brought energy and such a competitive zeal to every game. The girls in that group were thrilled to be a part of the program, and they couldn’t wait to play in school colors again this spring. They had a collective sense of ‘we.’
“Our practices in two preseason weeks were so darn competitive, so darn fun.”
Many of the players performed for the Lake Forest Soccer Association’s U13, U14 and U15 girls teams from 2014-16.
Those squads were also darn good.
Each team won a state championship. Seven current LF seniors suited up for all three state-title teams.
“Six of us first played together on a U8 team,” said forward Nicole Doucette, one of three Northwestern-bound booters (also Falls and striker Bridget Mitchell) among that promising troupe.
“We were all looking forward to competing together for one more season,” added Doucette, who netted the match-winning goal, with 30 ticks left in regulation, in LF’s 2-1 defeat of visiting Palatine in a Class 3A regional semifinal in ’17. “It would have been fun and exciting to see what our team’s all-around talent could’ve accomplished in the playoffs.”
The Scouts’ other seniors in ’20 are: forward and Johns Hopkins University recruit Elise Stanley; midfielder Alyssa Marquis; defender and 2019-20 student body president Sarah Bires; goalkeeper Sydney Fitzgerald; midfielder Katie Bondoc; defender and tri-captain Camy Esplin; forward Kate Gotta; midfielder Julia Loeger; forward Grace Hardy; and defender Ella Marquardt.
Forward/midfielder Alex Flynn would have been Stuckslager’s 15th senior in 2020 had she not graduated early; she attends Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.
“The seniors,” Stuckslager said, “took soccer seriously, but they didn’t take themselves seriously. All could laugh at themselves. If one made a mistake, like a bad trap, she’d never look to blame a teammate. Instead, she’d think or say, ‘Oh my gosh, what was I thinking?’”
Falls’ mind raced, all the way back to 2017, during a recent phone call. The playmaker with covetous vision relived her clutch goal in that PepsiCo Showdown final. But, true to form, she barely took credit for it because Williams had initiated the scoring sequence with a shot on goal.
“That was, without a doubt, a ‘team’ goal,” said Falls, adding she and the Scouts’ other frosh starters that spring considered themselves “little sisters.”
“It sure felt like a win to us, the loss to St. Charles North,” the Lake Bluff resident and future NU Wildcat continued. “We grew as a team from there, as players. Playing as well as we did against a team like St. Charles North lifted us, boosted all of us. Now, as seniors, 14 of us … crazy; that’s a crazy number for one team, isn’t it? We all have a really good sense of what leadership is. It would have been such a reward, being able to play this spring.”
Falls and the rest of her classmates turned in their uniforms in late May, but there’s hope they’ll get to don them at least one more time before attending that first class on that first day of college in the fall.
Maybe the team that earned State High School Soccer Coaches Association Academic All-America honors once again, will get the green light to kick it around in late June.
Or maybe in July.
From tears of sorrow to tears of joy?
Phase 4 in the Restore Illinois plan permits gatherings of 50 people or fewer. Advancing to that phase would allow LF to either convene a Blue & Gold intrasquad get-together or take on another prep team in a friendly.
“That’s the hope, and I’m sticking to it,” Stuckslager said. “I’m an eternal optimist.”
Stuckslager’s girls would likely blast their favorite warm-up song, Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby,” on a Phase 4 day. They’d sing along, too. Loudly. Louder-than-an-“L”-train-with-screeching-brakes loud.
“That’s part of what’s great about playing high school soccer — getting to enjoy bonding moments off the field and before games,” Stuckslager said. “You should hear their singing during bus rides. The volume … it gets up there.”
But the warblers in cleats and shin guards have never asked Stuckslager to accompany them for any song.
“That’s right,” the coach said. “It’s an intelligent group.”