Emily Duvall and Sarah Gouldrup

Opinion and Humor Editors

Senior Malia Yamamoto is already bringing success to the Girls’ Varsity soccer team in her first year competing with the squad as captain of the team. A lifelong soccer player and Division I commit to Santa Clara University, Yamamoto is on her way to help the LGHS Girls’ Soccer program rebound after a rocky season last year. Although Yamamoto did not play in previous years due to other club soccer commitments, she is ecstatic to compete this year. 

When asked about why she decided to play this year in contrast to other years, she mentioned, “I think as this is my last year at the high school, I did not want to have any regrets about not playing, I wanted to be a part of the school, and a part of the team.” Outside of school soccer, Yamamoto competes for Mountain View Los Altos (MVLA) Soccer Club, primarily playing center defense or outside defense. In contrast, for high school, Yamamoto typically plays a defensive midfielder position, or the “six.” Talking about the difference between high school and club soccer, she explained, “I love that they both are so different but are the exact same sport. I really enjoy the different experiences they both bring and it’s fun to be able to be a part of both.” 

Despite this being her first year on the LGHS Girls Soccer team, the girls elected Yamamoto as one of the co-captains for the season. Yamamoto captains alongside senior Brynn Gibson. She expressed her gratitude towards her team for trusting her to lead them: “It was really nice of everyone that they thought of me as captain because I wasn’t expecting that since it’s my first year. So far, captainly duties haven’t been too immense, but it’s been fun to be able to be a leader.” 

As a co-captain, Yamamoto helped lead her team to their first win of the season against Mountain View, ending the game with a score of 4-2. Yamamoto commented on the victory, noting that “For our team, it was just like a good step forward and [builds] confidence as we enter into our season.” With many games ahead of them, Yamamoto looks forward to showing the rest of the league how much the team has stepped it up.

After a long recruiting process, Yamamoto recently committed to Santa Clara University to play Division 1 soccer. While explaining that the process was hard, she expressed how playing soccer in college is a life-long dream for her. “It was really stressful but gratifying at the end. I mean, I started planning it and looking at schools in like seventh or eighth grade and so to be able to say that I’ve achieved my goal is really cool.” She also went on to describe the community and program that she is really excited to become a part of at Santa Clara. 

With a bright future ahead of her, Yamamoto only had a couple words of wisdom for her earlier, freshman year self: “Start lifting weights earlier because you were really weak.” Before she heads off to Santa Clara University, be sure to catch her tearing it up on Helm Field for the next couple of months with the LGHS team.