Neshaminy junior Megan Schafer was named PSCA State Player of the Year and also, for the second consecutive year, earned All-American recognition.
By Mary Jane Souder
It’s been over two years since Rachel Clemens got her first look at Megan Schafer on the soccer field, but the Neshaminy coach remembers it as if it were yesterday.
“When we had our summer workouts, it was the girls and the boys - whoever could make it, and she was out there beating up on the boys,” Clemens said. “When I saw her outrunning high school boys on the soccer field, I just couldn’t wait to have her on my team.
“I said, ‘This is a gift. Someone just gave me a present.’”
And quite a gift Schafer has been.
The junior standout recently was named to the NSCAA All-American team for the second consecutive year. This recognition came on the heels of earning a spot on the NSCAA Region II All-America team as well as the NCSAA All-Region II squad. An all-state player for the third straight year, Schafer recently was named the PSCA State Player of the Year.
Schafer finished a spectacular junior season with 27 goals and almost as many assists, and she was the unmistakable catalyst on a Redskin team that captured the SOL National Conference title and advanced to the state semifinals. Best of all, according to her coach, she makes everyone around her a better player.
“When she was a freshman, she always was more interested in getting the assists – beating a player one-on-one and passing off and getting the assists,” Clemens said. “I have been working with her since then just for her to become a little more selfish and actually take a look at the net.
“Over the years, she has done that. She scored a lot of goals but also held up on the assist end as well. She’s just a team player. That’s what she’s all about. She puts the team first, and that’s what her M.O. is.”
Clemens doesn’t even want to think about what life would have been like if Schafer - who spent her elementary school years attending Catholic school - had made a different decision at the end of her eighth grade year.
“It was really tough,” said Schafer. “My sister graduated from Conwell Egan and my brother went to Neshaminy.
“In eighth grade, I needed to start thinking about it, and my parents kept reminding me, but I kept pushing it off. It was all my decision. It was between Neshaminy and Villa (Joseph Marie).
“They were two completely different schools. Villa was an all girls, tiny private school, and Neshaminy would be so different because I had gone to Catholic school my whole life, but I wanted to try something new. I guess it worked out for me.”
Clemens – then the jayvee coach – admits she put in a pitch for Neshaminy when Schafer attended a soccer game at the school.
“I just said to her, ‘I heard a lot about you. I would love to have you here at Neshaminy. I know you have a big decision to make, so hopefully, the next time I talk to you or your parents, they’ll be telling me you’re coming to Neshaminy,’” Clemens recalled. “A couple of months later, we found out she was coming to Neshaminy.
“I was obviously elated because at that point she had been playing on her FC Bucks teams which has a lot of prestige to it as well. I had never seen her play soccer, but on top of that, I heard she was an unreal track star and a basketball player as well.
“I knew she was somebody special just from what I’d heard.”
The move to Neshaminy was relatively effortless for Schafer.
“Playing a fall sport and having a preseason in summer really helped a lot, just knowing the girls and having friends before school started,” she said.
Schafer, who has been playing soccer since she was four, continues to play for FC Bucks, and she has made a verbal commitment to take her immense talents to Penn State, choosing Penn State from a final list that also included Virginia Tech and Villanova.
“It came down to – if soccer didn’t work out, I would rather be at Penn State,” she said.
While the awards keep piling up, Schafer acknowledges she is surprised each time she receives a new one.
“I can’t be thankful enough for all the coaches who nominate me for all of them,” she said.
And that, according to Clemens, is a statement that tells everyone all they will ever need to know about Schafer.
“Aside from being a great soccer player, she’s a great kid,” the Redskins’ coach said. “There are so many student-athletes – if they became an All-American, they would walk around thinking they were the best thing since sliced bread, but she’s not like that at all.”
Just as she excels on the soccer field, Schafer also excels in the classroom.
“She’s a straight ‘A’ honors student,” Clemens said. “When I think about her, the word that comes to mind is integrity. As a teenager, I think it’s hard growing up in this day and age, but I feel like her outward actions reflect her inner values. She’s just genuine. Aside from being a phenomenal athlete, she takes care of things on the academic side as well. She’s just the full package.”
Clemens has earned an honor of her own this season when she was named the PSCA Class AAA coach of the year.
“Going into my freshman year was her first year as head coach,” Schafer said. “She did a phenomenal job as a first-year coach.
“I could probably say we were the most fit team, and even though everyone wanted to kill her at practices, we can only thank her at every single game. She’s always positive, and whether it’s soccer or not, you can always go to her.”
Schafer and Clemens are planning to travel to Indianapolis for the NSCAA banquet where the Neshaminy junior standout will be honored.
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