The Legacy of a Leader

SUTTON – Katie Wright can be considered the best high school soccer goalkeeper in the state. The 5-foot-8-inch, 135-pound senior captain led the Suzie’s to their first state title in four years. Along the way, she had a knack for making saves no ordinary keeper can make. Most notable was her two dozen save performance in the semifinals victory over Munson.

And yet, there was a time in her early soccer career where she hated the idea of protecting the net. She was about five-years-old. “Well, it’s kind of funny because I know when I was little my dad used to coach me,” she said. “He had put me in goal and I was pretty upset about it because I just wanted to be out there scoring goals.”

During her youth soccer experience, she had the opportunity to play the forward position, but it was required for all players to rotate to every position. “Everyone had to take their turn as a goalie and I hated it when it was my turn,” she said.

But then one day, Katie’s perspective about the goalie position completely changed during a seven-versus-seven match, which is a game where seven players were on

Katie Wright in command on the field

each team. A broad smile splashed across Katie’s face as she thought about facing one of her first breakaways as a goalkeeper.

“I guess in like youth soccer terms it was a breakaway,” she said, as she chuckled. “Like, they got a breakaway, which means that one key player on the other team was just dribbling it down and all the rest of the pack on the field just followed. Yeah, this must have been during seven-v-seven, I think, because our goals were a little bigger, or maybe I was just small. But the girl or I think it was the girl, or the guy shot it and I had put my hand out,” she said as she stretched out her right arm and hand as if to reach out for an invisible ball.

“And I kind of turned away from it,” she said. Katie then closed her eyes and turned her head to the left, touching her chin to her left shoulder, but she left her arm stretched out to the right.

“And I saved it!”

Her eyelids suddenly shot open and there seemed to be a glow to her smile now. “I feel like that’s just … I just had … I was just so proud of myself for making that save.”

Katie Wright in action during the season. Photo by Kevin Paul Saleeba

Katie was hooked on the position ever since. Throughout youth soccer and middle school, she mainly played as a defender and back-up goalkeeper, but as her love of playing in goal and prowess at the position grew, along with her standout athleticism, she eventually outplayed the other goalkeepers on the roster to become the starting goalie by her freshman year at Sutton High School.

Katie, who is set to graduate in the spring of 2022 as a straight-A student, a member of the National Honor Society, and president of the Environmental Club, will soon showcase her sensational soccer talent at the collegiate level next fall at Fairfield University in Connecticut.

However, as she sat at home with her parents, Pam and Scott, with her high school soccer career over and on the cusp of graduating into adulthood, her thoughts were about a much simpler time. She reminisced about when she scampered around the small soccer fields behind the Congregational and St. Mark churches at the center of town along Boston Road with her friends around the age of five. She recalled fondly the time she practiced at the small field of grass nestled between Pleasant Valley Road and Girard Pond.

“I remember playing there for the Fuller Hamlets,” she said about the field which no longer exists. A few years ago, the grass field was replaced with a parking lot, a multipurpose business building, and a car wash. “It’s so weird how much that area has changed. When we played in that area, there used to be a stream running directly through that field and we would always have to play around it. We would always kick the balls into the stream and then just run along the stream to get the balls back. I realize now that it was pretty disgusting. That little stream was actually runoff from the roads, but, you know, we had fun … with each of these small fields, you just remember these certain things and the lessons you’ve learned about the sport.”

Katie first acquired her soccer skills on these small fields, but her competitive spirit came from her two older siblings, her sister Allison and her brother Adam.

A younger Katie with her sister Allie, when she was still a member of the Sutton team. Submitted photo

“I would say that the kids have grown up in sports and there’s a good sibling rivalry among the three of them,” said Scott, her father. “I would say Katie is super competitive and I think the sibling rivalry has really helped foster that.”

Katie with her brother Adam after winning the state championship. Submitted photo

As Adam veered toward baseball, Allison became an accomplished midfielder/forward and captain for Sutton High School. As a middle schooler, Katie was influenced by watching her older sister play, as well as the then star goalkeeper, Naomi Falkenberg, who went on to have a successful collegiate career at Smith College.

Living up to the legacy of past Sutton players was Katie’s driving force to be the best. In fact, Sutton has had twelve years of stellar goalkeepers starting with Natalia Falcone, who went on to start all four years at Westfield State, and the Falkenberg was the bridge that led to Katie.

“Yeah, just knowing that I had to fill such big shoes, I think, just to live up to Naomi’s great high school soccer career, I felt like that just motivated me more to perform better each game,” Katie said. “Just watching my sister’s teams and watching them lose to Monson and then watching them win states after that, just pushed me more to be the best I can be. Just seeing that example of leadership and just a sense of what they’re responsible for, I think that was very important for me to see and to follow. I feel like each generation just really motivates the next year and the next year.”

“Sutton has had this legacy of really good soccer and good leaders in that program,” Scott said. “Because our other daughter played, as well, and we had six to eight years of watching Sutton soccer. When Katie was in fourth and fifth grade, she used to watch them play … Katie had some really good role models.”

Katie’s strong commitment to being the best comes from her insatiable desire to win for her teammates.

Katie Wright helps teammate Molly Jenkins during the season. Jenkins scored the game-winning goal in the championship game. Photo by Kevin Paul Saleeba

“I’ve known these girls for forever and just seeing how much success they get for themselves and us as a team, I’m just super, super proud of these girls,” she said. “I’m proud of what they’ve built and what they’re leaving as a legacy.”

Katie is going to miss all her teammates, especially her fellow captain, senior Leah Joseph. “Leah’s leadership is just impeccable,” she said. “I feel like she’s one of those captains that will be remembered by our underclassmen for years. They looked up to her as an example of how to lead their team when they’re captains during their senior years.”

Katie said she is glad she never had to face Joseph in a game. “She has a really great shot,” she said. “When we’re doing shooting drills during warmups or during our practices, she always makes me work when I’m in goal. I always worry that she’s just gonna bend one top corner. She has really great foot skills.”

Sutton senior captains Leah Joseph and Katie Wright. Photo by Kevin Paul Saleeba

One of her accomplishments in the sport did not even happen in a game. “It was right in the beginning of the season and our coach had everyone doing the Beep Test,” Katie said.

The Beep Test is a multiple-stage fitness test used to estimate an athlete’s VO2 max or maximum oxygen uptake. The test is great for coaches to evaluate a player’s cardiovascular fitness. Coach Shipp and the coaching staff decided to challenge Katie and her teammates. “Our coaches are pretty fit and so they said that if one of us beats them at the Beep Test, then we wouldn’t have to do it again the next week,” said Katie. “I really didn’t want to do it again and I knew my teammates really didn’t want to either because it was the week after a hard tryouts session in a row.”

Scott said “Katie is generally one of the most fit players on the entire team … Her high school coach was aghast that she was beating them in most of the challenges. That’s just the kind of competitor she is.”

“I just felt like I needed to do it for my team,” Katie said.

Heading into the championship game against Palmer High School, the Suzies had to contend with one of the state’s most prolific goal scorers in Palmer’s Maddy

Katie with her soon-to-be Fairfield University teammate, Maddie Theriault, after the state championship game. Submitted photo

Theriault, who scored five goals against Carver in the semifinals. Sutton was able to limit her to two assists in their victory. Before the game, both Katie and Theriault had both committed to play together at Fairfield. Dave Barrett, the head coach of Fairfield even attended the game to watch both Katie and Theriault.

“He was there to watch because Maddie Theriault is going to be Katie’s teammate,” said Pam, Katie’s mom. “He was up in the stands. She was their best player and Katie was probably Sutton’s best player and they’re both going at each other. They know they’re adversaries in that game, but they’ll be teammates. She has a phenomenal shot.”

Katie Wright in control on the field. Photo by Kevin Paul Saleeba

Katie has a lot to look forward to at Fairfield as her future teammate shared a nice moment following the game. “She’s a great player and I’ve gotten to know her personally … I’m really excited to play with her. We got a picture with her. she was a little bit. Somber or like up like she was a little upset, obviously, but she’s just such a great person and a great player.”

Katie is also looking forward to playing with Coach Barrett. When she visited the Fairfield campus to meet the players and Barrett, she said “he makes it a point to make sure that his players are doing well mentally, physically and academically and I feel like that’s pretty much what everyone should look for in a college coach.”

Before she ventures off to college, Katie credits her many coaches, Sutton High School head coach Jensen Shipp, her club coach at the FC Stars, Matt Davidson, and her personal goalkeeper coach Darth Maul. “I’ve learned so much from my coaches and I would not have been successful without their knowledge,” she said.

Nobody is more-prouder of Katie than her parents. “I think she has a lot of mental toughness,” Pam said. “I mean, not every kid can step into the goal and have a ball fired at their face. It takes a lot of mental prep and she works so hard at it … She doesn’t know how to give up. I couldn’t be any more prouder of what she’s accomplished.”

“As parents, all we can do is watch, you know?” Scott said. “We’re not out there on the field, we’re just parents. But it’s amazing watching Katie and the kids come together as a family. It’s amazing watching her become a leader. It’s been great to watch her provide some really good leadership as a captain. She made it happen.”