NEWARK, NJ—NJIT women's soccer coach Kevin Leacock announced that six high school student-athletes have signed National Letters of Intent and will begin their academic and athletic careers as Highlanders in the fall. All six are either forwards or midfielders and they come from as far away as Alaska and as near as New Jersey.
They are (listed alphabetically):
Mariam Bestawros, a forward from East Brunswick (NJ) High School
Amanda Dotten, a midfielder from Service High School in Anchorage, Alaska
Meryl Hershfield, a midfielder from Vancouver, British Columbia, who attended Jess Schwartz College Prep in Phoenix, AZ
Erin Morris, a midfielder from Potomac, MD and Thomas S. Wooton High School in Rockville, MD
Chacha Naito, a midfielder from Oneonta (NY) High School
Gechi Ukaegbu, a forward from Union (NJ) High School
--Mariam Bestawros, a top player for Central Jersey girls' soccer power East Brunswick High, missed most of her senior season while recovering from a knee injury sustained the previous spring. However, she returned in mid-October and notched a goal and four assists in a handful of games.
After the season, she was named to the all-area team by the Home News Tribune, marking the third straight year she had achieved that honor. She was also a multiple all-county honoree, as well as recipient of all-state recognition during her career.
“Mariam comes from a strong high school and a competitive club environment (PDA Pride),” said Leacock, who is entering his second season as head coach at NJIT and his fifth season with the Highlanders overall. “She'll add a dimension to our offense with her speed, strength and aggressiveness to goal. She's a natural goal scorer who will create problems for our opponents.”
Her intended major at NJIT is the BS/DPT in Physical Therapy.
--Amanda Dotten, a 5-foot-7 playmaker, will bring state championship experience in two sports as the second women's soccer player to cross the continent from Alaska to attend NJIT.
She was preceded by Dena Baskous, a graduate of East High School in Anchorage, who starred at NJIT from 2005 to 2007 after transferring from UConn.
Soccer is a relatively new sport at the scholastic level in Alaska (first official state championships were held in 2000). Against that background, Dotten's 20 goals as a junior in 2008 (girls soccer is a spring sport at her school) are recognized as the highest single-season total in Alaska history on a list of state leaders maintained by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.
In 2008, Amanda was named first-team all-state as a key member of Service High's state champion. She was captain of that team, as well as her school's 2009 team and she was a four-year varsity starter. Her club team is the Alaska Rush.
Dotten was also a first-team all-Alaska performer in an unlikely sport, earning the honor as the placekicker on her school's state champion boys football team. Although the object in soccer is to kick the ball under the crossbar, she has proven her leg strength by booting several football field goals in the 35-yard range over the crossbar and between the uprights. She also played flag football, which is an interscholastic sport for girls in Alaska.
“Amanda has great presence on both sides of the ball,” said Coach Leacock. “She's a natural playmaker and attacking threat with her speed, vision and explosiveness.”
Dotten, who plans to major in chemical engineering, will enroll as a student in NJIT's Albert Dorman Honors College.
--Meryl Hershfield is a 5-foot-4 midfielder who has excelled at the club level in both her native Canada and in Arizona, in addition to a fined scholastic career at Jess Schwartz College Prep in Phoenix, where she was a three-sport athlete, playing soccer, field hockey and basketball.
She continues a recent tradition of Canadians on the NJIT roster. The program's all-time leading scorer Erika Taugher, who completed her career in 2008, is from Ontario and the 2008 roster also included four other players born in Canada.
Hershfield will be the second British Columbia-born player on the 2009 Highlanders, joining rising sophomore Cielianna Pasiciel-Chalmers.
As a 12-year old in 2003, she was on the British Columbia provincial age group champion West Vancouver SC and in 2008, she played for SC Del Sol, the Arizona state champions.
Hershfield was named to the Canadian junior team (ages 15-18) that will play in the 18th Maccabiah Games in Israel in July. The Maccabiah Games are an Olympics-style multi-sport competition of Jewish athletes who compete on national teams against their worldwide counterparts.
Last year, Meryl played for the U17 team that represented Arizona in the US Youth Soccer Far West Regionals played in Hawaii.
“Meryl is capable of pinpoint accuracy with her distribution of the ball and she places herself in dangerous offensive positions all over the field,” commented Leacock. “Along with our other midfielders, she will combine to create more options moving forward.”
Her intended major at NJIT is business.
--Erin Morris is a tall (5-10) center midfielder who played her senior high school season at Thomas S. Wootton HS in Rockville, MD, after attending schools in Japan and Singapore in the 9th through 11th grades.
She was named all-tournament several times on teams that finished in first place in the 10th grade and in second place in the 9th and 11th grades. She also competed in varsity basketball and track and field. Her club soccer team was MSC Santos.
“Erin is a smooth and confident midfielder,” said Leacock. “She's consistent at exploiting defensive structures and providing services in to her fellow midfield players and forwards and she is very effective as we transition quickly from defense to offense.
Morris, who plans to major in industrial engineering, will enroll in NJIT's Albert Dorman Honors College.
--Chacha Naito is a versatile 5-foot-3 player whose primary position will likely be in the midfield.
She is playing at a high level for the senior team on the Adirondack Lynx of the Women's Premier Soccer League, which began its season in late May.
Naito has played three years for the Eastern New York Olympic Development Program and with the Middlepath FC club team, as well as starring for Oneonta (NY) High School, where she was a first-team all-area honoree by the Daily Star newspaper of Oneonta.
Also a track and field standout in high school, she comes by her athletic ability naturally, as her father, Haru Naito, was the 1973 NCAA College Division swimming champion in the 100-yard breaststroke. Mr. Naito was a four-time NCAA small college all-American swimming for Oneonta State.
“She is a crafty midfielder with a good eye for the game,” said Leacock. “She's technically sound and tactically aware. With her ability to marshall combination plays, make penetrating passes and get behind opposing defenses, she can create havoc in our attacking third.”
Chacha, who was born in Japan and whose full first name is Chiharu, plans to major in biology at NJIT.
--Gechi Ukaegbu (pronounced u-kay-boo) comes to NJIT from Union (NJ) High School, where she earned conference, county and state honors as a forward in a soccer career in which she started from her sophomore year on and also took part in track and tennis. The Star-Ledger named her to its all-Union County team in 2008.
“She is a talented forward who causes opportunities through her intensity and determination,” Leacock said. “She'll provide depth to our attacking play with her ability to connect with the team as well as with her ability to take it directly to goal.”
Gechi, whose full first name is Ogechika, plans to major in chemistry at NJIT.
The six new signees will join with the returning Highlanders, as well as with some other newcomers for the start of preseason practice in early August.
NJIT's first scheduled regular season match is on August 28 in West Point, NY, against Army and the first scheduled home match and third overall in 2009 is against Drexel at 7 pm on September 4 on Lubetkin Field.
NJIT will begin the inaugural Great West Conference women's soccer season on October 2, with a 7 pm home match on Lubetkin Field against South Carolina State.
The Great West, which is NJIT's new multi-sport home, has absorbed the old United Soccer Conference, which had been a women's soccer-only loop that included both NJIT and South Carolina State, which is now an associate member of the Great West for women's soccer.
Lubetkin Field will also be the host site of the first Great West Conference postseason tournament on November 6, 7 and 9.
