Colorado Academy's Marin McCoy, right, earned her spot as one of the state's top players, scoring 18 goals and 11 assists last season as a freshman.
Courtesy photo
By all accounts,
Marin McCoy only grew stronger as her freshman season wore on.
Not that the standout from the
Colorado Academy (Denver) girls soccer team started slowly. McCoy, after all, scored the lone goal in her very first varsity game, securing a 1-0 win against St. Mary's Academy (Englewood), and McCoy ended up compiling three goals and three assists in her first three games.
Nevertheless, after a midseason move from the midfield to forward, McCoy took off. Not coincidentally, so did the Mustangs. Returning this season after a remarkable freshman campaign, McCoy is hoping to lead Colorado Academy one step further after falling one goal short against Peak to Peak (Lafayette) in the Class 3A state championship match last year.
"Yeah, I'd say (last year) was a bit of a surprise," McCoy said. "At the beginning of the season, I don't think I was that big of a factor in the offense. Once I moved to forward I started really helping the team with goal-scoring and being that person that puts the ball in the back of the net."
McCoy collected 18 goals and 11 assists last season, earning the rare distinction of getting selected to
The Denver Post/MaxPreps All-Colorado team as a freshman. McCoy also is one of many examples of how the state's top players no longer are feeling compelled to enroll at tradition big-school powers.
McCoy's opponent in the 3A title match last year, Peak to Peak's
Belle Morel, finished second in the state with 34 goals after leading the Pumas' state title run with seven goals and seven assists in five state playoff games. And The Classical Academy (Colorado Springs) has built a perennial power that routinely sends some of the state's best players to the field.
In McCoy's case, she had two older sisters who played for Colorado Academy, carving her path toward the school. Yet with the continued proliferation of elite club teams, choosing a high-end high school soccer program at a big school has grown less essential for drawing the interest of college recruiters.
"I guess there might be other programs that are more attractive, but our league gets more attention than others just because of how competitive it is," Colorado Academy coach Sean Stedeford said. "For CA, we've gotten more girls soccer applicants the last few years than in the past. This year we went from 29 to 41. It's great. It creates problems for us as coaches, but they're good problems to have."
With opposing defenses unlikely to be caught off-guard by McCoy's skills this season, the sophomore will be challenged to come up with an equally impressive encore in 2013. Overall, McCoy had a hand in 29 of the Mustangs' 64 goals last year while recording four multiple-goal games—three of which occurred during the state tournament.
"My personal goals would be to get as many assists as possible this year and keep the ball moving through our offense," McCoy said. "I definitely agree that people will know who I am now after the amount of goals last year and the assists. I hope to play around whatever the defenses throw at me and keep being a major player on our offense."
