Coupeville Sports

   Julia Myers skies to knock a ball over the top of the net while manning the goal for her select soccer squad.

Julia Myers

One of the more talented soccer players in Coupeville didn’t get to play this season.

Battling back from her second knee injury in two years, Wolf sophomore Julia Myers spent the season in the stands, a bulky brace on her leg slowing the movements of the normally explosive goalkeeper.

A star in select soccer, where she mans the nets for Sean LeVine’s Whidbey Islanders squad, Myers was tripped up (literally), when a girl took her knees out in a game, resulting in a torn ACL, surgery and nine months of recovery. Barely back from that, she went airborne for a ball this summer in a tournament and tore the meniscus in the same knee.

Now, as she works back through the recovery from her second surgery (she’ll wear the brace until her physical therapist signs off on her knee being strong enough to go without), she just hopes to be recovered in time for tennis in the spring.

The two-sport athlete is more than ready to trade the stands for the flow of action.

“All of my coaches know how anxious I am to get back!” Myers said.

And, even with the set-back from the injuries, Myers’ love for life on the pitch has barely abated. She plans to be back out there directing action as soon as possible.

“My favorite sport is probably soccer just because I love the intensity and how aggressive you have to be,” Myers said. “It helps relieve stress when I’m on the soccer field; I forget about everything and just focus on the task in front of me.

“I hope one day to be able to play soccer in college, so my knee is a set back, but it only makes me want to work harder,” she added. “My team is like a family, so it’s always great to see us working together on the field and pushing each other to get better.”

It’s the team concept, the chance to spend time playing with her friends, that drives Myers through rehab. She always has one eye set firmly on making it back to the pitch and is willing to put in the work necessary to make that happen again.

“I enjoy being able to be around all my team. We’re like a family; we get along really well, we’ve been playing together since middle school,” Myers said. “I always look forward to going to soccer practice every day. I always bring a optimistic attitude to practice; I have fun but I’m also there to work and get better and help other people on my team get better.”

Myers, who enjoys her biology and history classes (“There is so much to learn”), spends her weekends hobbling around the Keystone Cafe.

“There are so many great people I get to work with and I’m so lucky to have gotten the opportunity to work with all of them!” Myers said.

And while Myers has a lot of people she likes, topping her list are her select soccer coaches, two men who have been there for her through good times and bad.

“Probably my coaches, Sean LeVine and Scott Rosenkranz. They have been with me through all of the obstacles I have had to face and whenever I’m ready to play again, they just go right back into it like I have never left in the first place,” Myers said. “I enjoy playing for both of them because they always come to practice with something new to teach me to help improve.”