School: Pennridge
Soccer
Favorite athlete: Mia Hamm
Favorite team: U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team
Favorite memory competing in sports: “After we won districts, we spent hours on the field celebrating, taking pictures and dancing.”
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: “It was the last minute of the game, and the opposing team had a corner kick. As the player is running up to take the kick, my little brother runs forward, picks up the ball and throws it down the hill. The player was furious and ran to get the ball. My team was in tears, we were laughing so hard.”
Music on iPod: Billy Joel, John Mayer, Maroon 5, The Script
Future plans: Play soccer at the University of Dayton, attend graduate school, and travel
Words to live by: “Live like you are dying.”
One goal before turning 30: “Go to a professional soccer match in Spain.”
One thing people don’t know about me: “BONES is my favorite show.”
By Alex Frazier
With all that Sarah Senoyuit is involved in, it’s not surprising that conflicts occasionally arise.
The Pennridge senior recalled one that didn’t work out so well. Besides being an excellent soccer player, Senoyuit is also an accomplished violinist.
In her sophomore year, her spring concert fell the same night as a big game against Central Bucks South.
Because the concert was considered a “final exam,” she couldn’t afford to miss it. So after the concert was over, she rushed to the soccer field in time to play the last 15 minutes of the game, which, by the way, the Rams lost.
“(Coach) George (Rodriguez) was furious,” she said. “(The loss) made it that much worse.”
Senoyuit has devoted most of her athletic life to soccer, which she started at three and a half at the Deep Run Valley Sports Association. She flirted briefly with ballet, but that quickly gave way to her real love.
From Deep Run, she advanced to Lenape Valley Travel Soccer and then to FC Bucks Fusion, where she has played for quite a while. She has also played for three years in the Olympic Development Program.
“I’ve known her since she was 12 and she is very committed to soccer,” said Rodriguez. “She’s an intense player and is a perfectionist when it comes to everything.”
Needless to say, her parents were overjoyed when she finally got her driving license.
“I was really fortunate to have parents that have been able to drive to crazy practices all over the state,” she said. “They’ve been really supportive. I wouldn’t be here without them.”
Of course, now they want her to text them when she arrives at her destination.
Senoyuit was a huge factor in Pennridge’s run to the District One championship last year and is expected to lead the Rams again this year, especially on offense, though she is so versatile Rodriguez has no qualms about using her anywhere up the middle from center back to front runner.
“She is one of our better technical players, if not the best,” said Rodriguez. “She puts the time into her technique. She’s a very versatile player. She can play anywhere in the middle of the field.”
One clear natural advantage Senoyuit has is her height. At 5-10, she is always a target on free kicks and corners.
“We’re hoping she’s going to be a big piece anytime we have a set piece,” said Rodriguez. “Even though her size is the first thing you notice, her forte is distributing and creating opportunities to score for other players, not just herself. She has one of the strongest shots on our team and in the area.”
Senoyuit’s artistic impulses have been satisfied by the violin, which she took up in fourth grade. It started innocently enough when the teacher presented students with a variety of instruments. Like many of her classmates, Senoyuit was attracted to the violin because “it sounded the prettiest.”
“I was only in fourth grade so I picked the one that sounded the best,” she said. “The violinist picked out good music and the most inspiring, so everyone signed up for the violin.”
But she was one of the very few that stuck with it for the next eight years.
She has advanced to first chair, second violin in the school orchestra. She is also part of the Strolling Strings ensemble that visits nursing homes to play Christmas music and plays at community events.
Senoyuit is also a member of the senior class executive council and Best Buddies, an international organization that works with disabled children, organizing such things as dances and game nights.
“You go and interact with them and make them feel part of the school,” she said.
While she has been busy with extracurricular activities, Senoyuit has been attentive to her academic work. She has a 4.32 grade point average and is a member of the National Honor Society.
Next year, Senoyuit will take her copious talents to the University of Dayton.
She came in contact with Dayton at the Orange Classic Showcase (Ft. Lauderdale) in December 2007. She received an e-mail from the school indicating an interest in her.
The college had everything she wanted—a small Catholic university with a community feel located in the Midwest.
She e-mailed back and forth and committed in November, 2008.
“I was blessed everything worked out so well,” she said. “It was nice to be able to breathe.”
She made her official visit this past spring.
Violin will most likely fall by the wayside as ballet did many years ago, another victim of her soccer frenzy.
She plans on majoring in psychology.
“I took a class last year and I was undecided what I wanted to do, and it sparked my interest,” she said. “I thought it was interesting, so why not major in it?”
While Senoyuit has pursued many directions so far in life, soccer has provided her with some of the best lessons.
“You play for yourself a little bit, but you’re mostly playing for your teammates,” she said. “Everyone makes those little sacrifices and you come together like a family. It’s so much fun to play.
“After games you’re sore and you’re tired, but it’s a good tired. It shows what you’re made of. It’s helped me with self-discipline. I know if I have practice that night, I have to get my homework done as soon as I get home from school. And there’s commitment and loyalty to my team.
“It’s helped develop me as a person as much as it has as a soccer player.”
