On Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016, Central Bucks East senior Emily Horn and Emma Loving were recognized for committing to continue their soccer careers at the collegiate level. To view photos of the event, please visit the Photo Gallery.
Emily Horn – University of Maryland Baltimore County (Soccer)
Major: Undecided but possibly physical therapy
Final list of colleges: UMBC, Loyola University (Maryland)
Reasons for choosing UMBC: “Their science programs are really well known. My dad is in the medical field as well, and he always talks about helping people get back to a healthy living standard, and it always kind of inspired me to rehabilitate people. I love helping people and working with people.
“I also really loved the coaching staff, the program and all the girls on the team. It’s a good distance, a good atmosphere at the school. I’m really excited to go.”
What was the progression that led you to competing in soccer at the collegiate level? “I started looking at schools my freshman year. It was always in my head to play soccer in college. It was always a dream of mine since I was little, so getting here is pretty cool.”
Coach Paul Eisold says: “Both of them were two-year captains, both of them were three-year starters. You talk about anchors of a position, and both of them really supplied that in two different ways. Emily is very quiet leader, a very determined player. What she did for us was pretty amazing. When you reflect on the season, you don’t realize how big of a role she played, but she played an immense role for the team. She played out of position. Generally, she was a midfielder in the club circuit, and we asked her to be an unselfish player and play where we needed her as a squad, and she did that. She played in the back. She understood– and this is where Emily is so smart – that the game is bigger than the individual. She played the game bigger than an individual. Even her senior year, we lost Abby Brown, our center back, against Quakertown, and Emily just fell into that position. Whatever we asked her to do she did. She was injured most of her senior year, she battled injuries on and off. She rested when it was important to rest, and she took extremely good care of her body. Without her as an anchor in the back, we’re not as successful as we were for three years.”
About Emily:
Favorite food: Ice Cream
Favorite movie: About Time
Favorite music: John Mayer
Emma Loving – University of Pennsylvania (Soccer)
Major: Biological Basis of Behavioral Science
Final list of colleges: Penn, Rutgers, Penn State, Virginia, Brown
Reasons for choosing Penn: “It came down to a combination of things. It has the great soccer program - I love the coaches. Also, the lure of going to an Ivy League school and the academic reputation that it has. Planning ahead and looking to the future, you only have four years of soccer left. Some of the lucky ones get to go on and play somewhere else, but it comes down to what are you going to do when your last four years are over. I think Penn had the best setup for me and the best avenue I want to take after college.
“Penn started sending me e-mails in the beginning of my sophomore year. At first, I said – I would never go to a city school, and my dad said. ‘Let’s go down to a clinic and see how it goes.’ We went to the clinic, and I loved it, absolutely. I had been on a bunch of campuses by that point, and I was like, ‘This is where I want to be.’ I loved the campus, I loved the coaches, and the team was great. Everyone was great there.”
What was the progression that led you to competing in soccer at the collegiate level? “When I was in ninth grade, I received my first college e-mail. As a ninth grader, you’re still making the transition from middle school to high school. For Central Bucks, you’re still in the middle school – ninth grade is Holicong, so I got my first e-mail, and it became a reality. It was from Rutgers, and I remember the day. It was the most surreal thing. It felt so strange. I looked into Rutgers, I made my list and I tried to figure it out from there.”
Coach Paul Eisold says: “Emma brought a desire that was contagious to the team. She got so much better every year. She got a taste of it with Shaun Kane. She and Shaun worked tremendously hard, and she reaped the benefits of Shaun’s hard work. She had a lot of success as a sophomore, and she just flourished. She just ate it up. Her competitiveness is probably one of the strongest things that she has because she wants to compete at such a high level. She was such a competitor that I had to calm her down and pull her off the field to make her understand there’s a way to compete and there’s a way to be patient and compete. Her maturity between her junior and senior year is really what set her apart. It really did. Yes, she scored goals as a sophomore, and she scored goals as a junior, but her senior year – if you watched her play, the maturity of her game was just elevated by her experience and her leadership.
“I know that girls’ soccer has not been in the fall that long in the high school, but as far as CB East is concerned, Emma shattered every record that you could shatter. I don’t think any player has been to states in the history of CB East and probably in most schools four years in a row. That’s pretty impressive. Her freshman year she ended up getting a concussion, but she was still on the squad. The leadership role is something she grew into. I always remind the girls – you don’t just wake up one day and you’re a leader. Having an All-American on your team certainly changes the way you view things. She was just a competitor.”
About Emma:
Favorite food: Cheesecake
Favorite movie: Spirit
Favorite music: Coldplay
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