Olah makes Neuqua Valley get defensive
By Matt Le Cren
Before Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced April 17 that schools would remain closed for the remainder of the academic year, Neuqua Valley defender Megan Olah was holding out hope that she would get to play at least a partial season.
That will not happen.
“Obviously, we want everyone to be safe,” Olah said. “But it being my last year and this happening kind of sucks, especially for seniors.”
Indeed, Olah is one of countless high school student-athletes whose senior year was brought to a premature end by the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s very difficult on the seniors,” Neuqua Valley coach Joe Moreau said. “There’s no ending.
“(They will miss) little things like Senior Night. I have my ceremony after the game, because it’s pretty emotional.”
This was supposed to be Olah’s crowning achievement in soccer, a chance to take a final bow before heading off to college. The third-year starter at right back was voted co-captain by her peers, joining Paige Munar, Piper Biziorek and Julia Rushing to form an impressive leadership quartet.
Of the four, Olah is the most underrated and most unassuming. But she was a rock at right back on a stellar Neuqua Valley defense.
“She’s a quiet kid, but she is respected by her teammates,” Moreau said. “She doesn’t do anything flashy but never gets beat defensively.
“She has a strong leg, but she’s deceptively quick. She uses her body well in terms of players trying to beat her, and tactically she is very smart.”
Olah has played on the backline for most of her lengthy career, which stretches back to kindergarten. It’s not a position that lends itself to notoriety, but she doesn’t mind.
“At Neuqua, the coaching staff and the people on the team, everybody supports each other no matter what and everybody is recognized in different ways,” Olah said. “So, if somebody scores a great goal, they’ll get recognized for it.
“But if someone makes a great play on defense or works their butt off to get back and help, that stuff is recognized, too, which is good, and I think Moreau sees all that.”
So do her teammates.
“I love having a defender in front of me that, even when the game is crazy and on the line, can stay calm and collected,” junior goalkeeper Tara Tesmond said. “That is so important to have someone like that on the team, and I think Megan definitely brings that.
“She shows up to all of our conditioning, everything we have to go to she’s always there. She’s somebody that we can count on.”
Olah has a reputation for being calm, not an easy trait to have when playing the tough schedule Neuqua faces every year. It can be contagious.
“That’s so important to have in your backline - somebody that can keep everyone else calm, because in the backline, there’s a lot of chaos,” Tesmond said. “They are scrapping with forwards; they’re hitting each other; they get very aggressive.
“I witness it all first-hand. The forwards do some dirty, cheap things. They will step on (defenders’) feet. They’ll push them; and I see it all.
“The refs don’t see it, but I do. Megan, they can push her around, but she’s going to stay the same player. She’s not going to let anyone get in her head, and that’s something that I respect a lot about her.”
So how does Olah cope?
“I just try and stand my ground and not let anybody mess with how I’m playing,” she said. “One of my strengths is I always try my hardest when I’m on the field.
“One of the toughest things (about defending) is you are the last player before the goalie, so you can’t really mess up. If you do, there’s not people to cover you, so it’s kind of scary.
“But the way to overcome that is just by trying not to think about it. I just try to play my game and not think about messing up.”
What Olah does think about is how to help her teammates, and not just by shutting down opposing forwards.
“I think I can see the field really well, especially playing defense,” Olah said. “You can see the whole field, which helps your teammates, too.
“I really like playing defense, especially outside back, because Moreau really tries to include the defense in the offense, which sometimes with club that doesn’t really happen.
“It will be a lot of passing it wide to us, and we’re incorporated in the play moving forward, which makes it more fun for us.”
For some Neuqua seniors, there will be more fun on the soccer field. Munar will continue her career at Ball State in the fall, while Biziorek is headed to North Carolina-Charlotte and Kaitlyn Khazen will play at Lawrence.
But competitive soccer is now a thing of the past for Olah, who has the talent to play at the next level but decided against it. She plans to attend Colorado State and focus on her studies.
“Freshman year I would go to all these ID camps for a bunch of different schools,” Olah said. “I wasn’t totally sure if I wanted to play.
“That’s kind of what everyone was telling me to do, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to. I would go out to all these schools and yes, go there for the soccer (camp), but I also wanted to figure out what kind of schools I liked, like what I wanted to do in the future. So, I used those trips for that as well.
“Then I went to an ID camp at Colorado State, and I fell in love with the school overall. They have a major that fit what I was interested in, and I go to Colorado every year with my family for vacation and snowboarding, so it kind of felt like the perfect fit.”
But Olah decided last fall that soccer did not fit in her plans. She may play on the club team or do intramurals.
“It was definitely a hard decision,” Olah said. “I was lucky my parents didn’t (pressure her).
“They let me choose whatever I wanted to do, which was really nice knowing that they would support me either way. So that kind of took the pressure off me, but I didn’t feel bad because they’ve been paying for all this soccer and travel for 13 years.”
That investment, of course, still will pay off because Olah intends to remain active and put her sports knowledge to use. She will major in health and exercise science.
“I’m not sure what I really want to do with it yet,” Olah said. “I can go a bunch of different directions, but I’ve always been interested in health and nutrition and working out.”
By Matt Le Cren
Before Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced April 17 that schools would remain closed for the remainder of the academic year, Neuqua Valley defender Megan Olah was holding out hope that she would get to play at least a partial season.
That will not happen.
“Obviously, we want everyone to be safe,” Olah said. “But it being my last year and this happening kind of sucks, especially for seniors.”
Indeed, Olah is one of countless high school student-athletes whose senior year was brought to a premature end by the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s very difficult on the seniors,” Neuqua Valley coach Joe Moreau said. “There’s no ending.
“(They will miss) little things like Senior Night. I have my ceremony after the game, because it’s pretty emotional.”
This was supposed to be Olah’s crowning achievement in soccer, a chance to take a final bow before heading off to college. The third-year starter at right back was voted co-captain by her peers, joining Paige Munar, Piper Biziorek and Julia Rushing to form an impressive leadership quartet.
Of the four, Olah is the most underrated and most unassuming. But she was a rock at right back on a stellar Neuqua Valley defense.
“She’s a quiet kid, but she is respected by her teammates,” Moreau said. “She doesn’t do anything flashy but never gets beat defensively.
“She has a strong leg, but she’s deceptively quick. She uses her body well in terms of players trying to beat her, and tactically she is very smart.”
Olah has played on the backline for most of her lengthy career, which stretches back to kindergarten. It’s not a position that lends itself to notoriety, but she doesn’t mind.
“At Neuqua, the coaching staff and the people on the team, everybody supports each other no matter what and everybody is recognized in different ways,” Olah said. “So, if somebody scores a great goal, they’ll get recognized for it.
“But if someone makes a great play on defense or works their butt off to get back and help, that stuff is recognized, too, which is good, and I think Moreau sees all that.”
So do her teammates.
“I love having a defender in front of me that, even when the game is crazy and on the line, can stay calm and collected,” junior goalkeeper Tara Tesmond said. “That is so important to have someone like that on the team, and I think Megan definitely brings that.
“She shows up to all of our conditioning, everything we have to go to she’s always there. She’s somebody that we can count on.”
Olah has a reputation for being calm, not an easy trait to have when playing the tough schedule Neuqua faces every year. It can be contagious.
“That’s so important to have in your backline - somebody that can keep everyone else calm, because in the backline, there’s a lot of chaos,” Tesmond said. “They are scrapping with forwards; they’re hitting each other; they get very aggressive.
“I witness it all first-hand. The forwards do some dirty, cheap things. They will step on (defenders’) feet. They’ll push them; and I see it all.
“The refs don’t see it, but I do. Megan, they can push her around, but she’s going to stay the same player. She’s not going to let anyone get in her head, and that’s something that I respect a lot about her.”
So how does Olah cope?
“I just try and stand my ground and not let anybody mess with how I’m playing,” she said. “One of my strengths is I always try my hardest when I’m on the field.
“One of the toughest things (about defending) is you are the last player before the goalie, so you can’t really mess up. If you do, there’s not people to cover you, so it’s kind of scary.
“But the way to overcome that is just by trying not to think about it. I just try to play my game and not think about messing up.”
What Olah does think about is how to help her teammates, and not just by shutting down opposing forwards.
“I think I can see the field really well, especially playing defense,” Olah said. “You can see the whole field, which helps your teammates, too.
“I really like playing defense, especially outside back, because Moreau really tries to include the defense in the offense, which sometimes with club that doesn’t really happen.
“It will be a lot of passing it wide to us, and we’re incorporated in the play moving forward, which makes it more fun for us.”
For some Neuqua seniors, there will be more fun on the soccer field. Munar will continue her career at Ball State in the fall, while Biziorek is headed to North Carolina-Charlotte and Kaitlyn Khazen will play at Lawrence.
But competitive soccer is now a thing of the past for Olah, who has the talent to play at the next level but decided against it. She plans to attend Colorado State and focus on her studies.
“Freshman year I would go to all these ID camps for a bunch of different schools,” Olah said. “I wasn’t totally sure if I wanted to play.
“That’s kind of what everyone was telling me to do, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to. I would go out to all these schools and yes, go there for the soccer (camp), but I also wanted to figure out what kind of schools I liked, like what I wanted to do in the future. So, I used those trips for that as well.
“Then I went to an ID camp at Colorado State, and I fell in love with the school overall. They have a major that fit what I was interested in, and I go to Colorado every year with my family for vacation and snowboarding, so it kind of felt like the perfect fit.”
But Olah decided last fall that soccer did not fit in her plans. She may play on the club team or do intramurals.
“It was definitely a hard decision,” Olah said. “I was lucky my parents didn’t (pressure her).
“They let me choose whatever I wanted to do, which was really nice knowing that they would support me either way. So that kind of took the pressure off me, but I didn’t feel bad because they’ve been paying for all this soccer and travel for 13 years.”
That investment, of course, still will pay off because Olah intends to remain active and put her sports knowledge to use. She will major in health and exercise science.
“I’m not sure what I really want to do with it yet,” Olah said. “I can go a bunch of different directions, but I’ve always been interested in health and nutrition and working out.”