Gage’s passion for soccer pays off

People often speak of “lifelong passions.” When it comes to soccer and Sammy Gage, that term fits perfectly.

“When I was 1-year-old, my dad had cleats and a soccer ball picked out for me,” Gage said.

She’s grown quite a bit since then, and whether as a midfielder or as a forward, she spent this last spring helping lead St. Charles North’s girls soccer team into the sectional semifinals. For her efforts, Gage is the captain of the Daily Herald Tri-Cities Girls Soccer All-Area team.

In the years since she received her first soccer shoes and ball, she’s not lost a bit of her passion for the game.

“There’s just something about it,” Gage said. “You go out there and it’s your passion. I look forward to the next game so much. It’s on my mind and on my calendar and I know when it’s going to be. Doing something you love with a group of friends is great.”

Gage spent the year shuttling between midfield and the forward line, depending where the North Stars most-needed her talents. She excelled in either role. As a midfielder, her forward-thinking mind enabled her to provide passes for the front-runners. When she played forward, her midfielder’s instincts enabled her to fight for the ball when it was lost in the attacking third.

Through it all, she showed a tenacity to give everything until the final whistle. Gage scored both goals in her team’s season-ending loss to Schaumburg, and both came from scrambles in the penalty area where determination to get to the ball was more important that fancy ball skills.

“I’ve watched her evolve over the last three years,” St. Charles North coach Ruth Vostal said. “She came in as a sophomore and she was really quiet. Last year, as a junior, her soccer and athletic abilities came together. And this year, she has developed as a leader. We talked about how in order to be a captain, you have to hold people accountable. She has this way of addressing her peers and I think they all respected her a ton.”

Gage’s versatility allowed Vostal to work with a number of different lineups this year. It also allowed younger players to get extended minutes at forward when she was in the midfield, and also for other midfielders to play more when she was a forward.

“There are different teams we face and different lineups where she is more effective in one spot than others,” Vostal said. “She is a great playmaker so it is hard to keep her out of the midfield. Other times, up front, she is so creative and she has the ability to cut and move and to take shots. She has this great ability on the field, and when she turns it on, she can dominate a game.”

Gage moved to St. Charles from Maryland when she was in the fifth grade. She said her club team in Maryland, the Crofton Wolves, had a “big impact on my soccer career.” When she got to Illinois, she started playing for the Fox Valley Strikers, and it was through that team that she first encountered high school soccer — and she fell in love with it immediately.

“I always knew I wanted to play soccer in high school,” Gage said. “That dream started with the Wolves. But I was first made aware of it when I was in sixth grade and my coach, Pat Feulner, was the coach at St. Charles East and I got to be a ball girl at North. It was one of the highlights of my life to that point. I though I was the coolest girl, out there being a ballgirl, and I wanted to be a part of the game I saw on the field.”

Gage spent her first year with the North Stars junior-varsity. Making the leap to varsity soccer required preparation for an entirely different level of competition.

“The first thing I remembered was that how, in my first game with the varsity, the girls were so much bigger,” Gage said. “The environment was much more serious and was a lot higher intensity. And there was also a lot larger time commitment.”

But it is the increased difficulty of playing a demanding sport that continues to draw Gage to soccer, and will continue to do so when she graduates and heads to the University of Illinois-Chicago.

“It is a tough sport, but that’s what makes it exciting,” Gage said. “Soccer is a difficult game, but if someone doesn’t like the physical aspect of the game, then chess is a better option.”

It does get tough, but that’s what makes it exciting. In the grand scheme of things — that head injury compared to some of the stuff my friends have gone through is nothing. Soccer is a difficult game. If somebody doesn’t like that, then chess is a better option.

Still, Gage loved the experience of playing varsity soccer, and even though she said she loves playing club soccer, there is something special about the high school season.

“For years, I’ve gone to watch my brother (Tom) coach boys basketball games in December and January at North and the high school girls would all come over at halftime and say that they couldn’t wait to get going. That’s Sammy too. I know she enjoys her club, but there’s something special about high school,” Vostal said.

For her part, Gage doesn’t deny the love she had for her North Stars teammates.

“If (Vostal) told me to go play goalkeeper, I’d do it, but she wouldn’t want to do that,” Gage said. It does get tough playing varsity soccer, but that’s what makes it exciting. There are lots of little things, like walking into the LRC and seeing a picture of yourself on the bulletin board or teachers coming up to you and congratulating you.”

One of the side benefits has been a chance to compete with her sophomore sister Alex. The younger Gage played defense this year but also came forward to help support the attack on corner kicks and free kicks.

“Allie and I have an interesting age gap,” Sammy Gage said. “We’re close enough in age to be friends but we never played on the same team together until we both played for the varsity team. Her strengths are things in areas that I’m not good at. She plays the ball well. She made this team a lot better, and she’s made me a lot better as well.”

Gage wore No. 6 for the North Stars. She said 9 was her first choice when she moved to Illinois, but that was taken by another club teammate, so she chose 6. She said she likes the Dallas Cowboys and Tony Romo, who also wears No. 9. What she also said was that having to turn in that shirt for the final time was difficult.

“The end probably didn’t hit home as much when I was a sophomore and a junior,” Gage said. “Now, I walked off the pitch every time knowing ‘hey, I may be handing in my jersey the next day or I might be putting on my shin guards for another practice.’ But that pressure helps me and it helps the team play quite a bit better. I knew it would be a downer when our last game came.”