With three successful seasons under her belt, junior Shannon Goodwin has been nominated for the All County First Team. This year Goodwin led the 15-5-2 Pascack Hills girls team in goals with 29. 

Goodwin has been playing soccer for a long time and is happy to see that all her hard work has paid off. 

“I’ve played soccer ever since I could practically walk, starting in preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade then playing travel from 2nd grade and on, and I still play on a competitive club team. My mom played soccer when she was a kid, so she introduced it to me, and I just loved it, and I stuck with it,” Goodwin said. 

All of Goodwin’s achievements have not come easy though as she has had to sacrifice a lot to achieve her success. 

“I’ve played soccer competitively since elementary school, and the amount of training and the workload has only increased each year. I put in a lot of hours into playing soccer. During highschool season we practice almost everyday and have 2 or even 3 games a week, we wake up early and train, we stayed after school on Friday’s and practice, and we sacrifice our weekends to get better.”

The time commitment does not stop when the regular season ends.

 “During club season, I practice at least 3 or 4 times a week, every week, with games or tournaments on the weekends, along with going to the gym once or twice a week and working with a strength trainor. My teammates and I have had to miss school to travel to games or tournaments, and we have given up a lot of social events to dedicate and focus ourselves on training, but it’s all been worth it” Goodwin said. 

With all of her individual successes she wouldn’t have been able to do it without her teammates and coaches pushing her to be the best player she could be. Goodwin loves being apart of the Pascack Hills girls team trying to help the team reach success. 

“Being apart of the Pascack Hill Girls Soccer team has pushed me in a lot of ways, and really helped me improve as a player. Playing with people you go to school with is really fun, and allows me to work harder.”

Goodwin is able to play with some of her longtime friends and bond with new friends made from the team.

 I play with my closest friends, so at practice we are all able to be honest with one another and push each other, as well as have a really fun time. The girls soccer team is also really lucky that our coaches have a lot of experience with soccer, both having played soccer at the collegiate level, and our head coach, Jim Loudon, coaches club teams. This year we also took on Brianna Musco, who was a star soccer player at Hills a few years back, so they really are able to understand the sport, and push us,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin has had a lot of memorable moments with her teammates and coaches being part of the Pascack Hills girls team, specifically the Northern Highlands game.

“The Northern Highlands girls soccer team has consistently ranked nationally year after year, and for us to beat them was just such a special feeling, especially after playing such a long, hard, and stressful game. I know my teammates and I will never forget the moment we all ran to our keeper, Nicole, who saved us time after time, and we all just felt so complete, it was really just a moment of genuine and pure happiness,” Goodwin said. 

Even with this success, Goodwin wasn’t sure how her odds were stacked up against the other players in the county. 

“In terms of being selected to the all county team, it was definitely a struggle being compared to so many other girls from so many other schools. I really feel like this area has some of the best girls soccer players, and there are so many outstanding schools with stacked teams. So for me, coming from a smaller school, it was hard to be compared to bigger schools such as Ramapo, Northern Highlands, or Ridgewood, but it’s really a blessing to be selected, and a great feeling knowing I am grouped with some extremely talented girls,” said Goodwin. 

Goodwin is interested in eventually playing at the collegiate level. Goodwin has played soccer her entire life and can’t imagine not playing.

“My entire life has been dedicated to soccer, and I can’t imagine not playing it,” [At the collegiate level] Goodwin said.

Soccer is more than a game to Goodwin.

“It has been a major part of my life and has taught me so many valuable lessons that go way beyond soccer itself.”