Girls soccer: Fox Valley All-Area captain Leon gets stronger, tougher, leads to record 47 goals for DuKane champ St. Charles East
Drill, drill, drill.
After jumping into the high school soccer scene by scoring 34 goals as a freshman, St. Charles East sophomore Mya Leon knew opponents were going to do whatever they could to stop her this spring.
So she drilled it into her head that she needed to get tough.
Thanks to off-season weight room drills addressing physicality, Leon’s toughness turned her into an even more potent scorer as she set a new school record for goals in a season with 47 to lead the Saints to a DuKane Conference title, regional title and into the sectional finals, finishing 20-1-5.
“What I think impacted this season coming off of freshman season was I needed to be more physical,” she said. “Because at postseason meetings one of the biggest things they told me was to work on physicality and not getting pushed off the ball.
“I wasn’t getting pushed off the ball (this year) and was winning 50/50 balls so I could drive through the defense and beat people one-on-one while staying on my feet, which was something I had to learn from freshman year. I’d do these drills in the weight room where I pushed against a teammate and tried to keep my balance or give it back to them, and honestly what helped me with those drills was staying on my feet and keeping aligned.”
Leon, an all-state selection for the second consecutive season, has been named the captain of the 2026 Daily Herald Fox Valley All-Area girls soccer team.
"Mya had the best year in school history from a statistical standpoint,” Saints coach Vince DiNuzzo said. “Her desire to improve is evident in the growth we saw from her freshman to sophomore year. She improved her ability to hold the ball, score out of the air, beat players 1v1, and her finishing from outside the box. She is a great teammate and puts the team's success over her individual accomplishments and we are excited to see what the team can accomplish next year.”
Leon’s best friend is sophomore Qori Strotkamp who led the Saints with 21 assists.
“We have been best friends since middle school so its really easy to work together, for me to trust her and know where she is to play her,” Strotkamp said. “She is like a sister to me. She always brings joy and laughter in every room she enters.”
Her pace brings opportunities when she enters the final third.
“Mya is overall an athlete and her pace is heavily successful to beat players as well as her fight for the ball and desire,” Strotkamp said. “I think for us both we work off me being able to place a ball precisely for where she is able to reach it and move forward and our top abilities flow off one another and work to benefit our team.”
The Saints outscored their opponents, 103-48.
“It all starts in the back with (goalkeeper) Mia (Olenek) who grew so much as a communicator to those starting in the back line with Reese (Kyle), Georgia (Smith) and Averie (Foulkes) and our depth back there,” junior midfielder Sophia Wollenberg said. “They were all stepping up, and then the midfield, Georggia (Desario), Tatum (Smith), Qori (Strotkamp) and great depth. They put in the work and probably didn’t get the credit they deserve but deserve it so much because we wouldn’t have been able to get as far as we did without them putting in the dirty work in the midfield along with the wings, Lilli (Margewich) and Annie (Anika Dodrill). Whether they got credit or not, everyone worked well together and Mya finished up top.”