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November 14, 2002

Sophomore Erica Peters

WASHINGTON, DC – One day. One day after years spent dribbling and passing, shooting and shooting again. Hours spent training for and dreaming of soccer. Erica Peters had one day to prove she belonged on a Division 1 women’s soccer program.

Pressure? You think?

But would this make or break her college experience? Not if you’re Erica Peters.
To think Peters picked American University just to play women’s soccer would be to only see one side of her. Better said, she’s a sophomore international studies major, a patron of the arts and a key reserve on the AU women’s soccer team.

"I knew I wanted to play if I could but I wasn’t going to pick a school for soccer,” Peters explained.

In her college deciding process, American had edged out many Midwestern schools that held the Champaign, Ill. native’s closest family and friends nearby. Among the masses of college information she received in her mailbox, there was a piece from American University one afternoon. The name resonated with Peters because her high school soccer coach had mentioned it just one week before.

“My senses were definitely up for it,” said Peters, who earned a Dean’s Scholarship.

Fast-forward three years later. Peters eyes a spinning soccer ball bouncing unevenly towards her. It’s a cross ball and it’s up to Peters to put it in the net.

“Everything was in slow motion,” she explains. But her connection with the ball is good, and against Rutgers, Peters has tallied her first collegiate goal.

The moment was savored by Peters, who wasn’t even recruited by American during her high school days. Her story goes something like this: After she was accepted, she emailed AU assistant coach Natalie Scavo, who invited her to a one-day walk-on tryout in August. A chance, and nothing more. In most athletic programs, walk-on tryouts are not the place to discover high-caliber talent. Peters had to know that going in, but she also knew it was a risk worth taking.

“It’s very rare to find somebody in that environment,” says Head Coach Mike Brady. “We immediately saw her athleticism and invited her on an extended trial. She integrated very quickly and her contributions both on an off the field are obvious.”

What Brady, Scavo and the rest of the program got that year was solid play from Peters, who focused on both the soccer field and schoolwork, achieving a 3.74 in her first semester to earn a spot on the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll.

“You don’t always hear her voice until you are in her vicinity,” said Brady. “But you hear her when you get closer and she’s usually spot on. She gives her teammates instant feedback.”

It’s a voice that has carried well. The 2002 American University women’s soccer team defeated Colgate 2-1 in the Patriot League Championship to earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament for the first time in American University history.

But Peters sees beyond cracking the starting lineup, and even beyond the goal line. After all, if she hadn’t made the team during tryouts, she would have found something else to occupy her time.

Growing up in the Midwest, she got involved with her church youth group running from school to soccer practice. Her parents and two sisters, Tara and Carrie, all participated in mission retreats that traveled around the world to help those in need through their Protestant group.

In middle school, Peters traveled to Mexico twice where she spent time developing and implementing children’s programs using puppets and skits to entertain them. Peters began to understand that she could make a difference, and added more stamps to her passport during her high school years.

Once she traveled to Wales to help out with local churches. Peters also visited the Czech Republic in the summer after her senior year in high school with her youth group. There, she helped children with their English studies and helped to start a church in town.

The summer before, she had the opportunity to baby-sit for a family she knew in Indonesia for three weeks. Peters remembers living in the new culture in her short time there. She also managed to squeeze her soccer workouts in, teaching the local children how to play the game she loves.

“Through my history teachers, I’ve always been interested in other cultures and religions,” she says.

She dates the love back to fifth grade, when her teacher, Mr. Lenkart, would bring in the Chicago Tribune for his class to read. Reading the daily made her realize that history was certainly alive, and that she could be a part of it.

“It really made history interesting and I became more aware,” said Peters.

Since college, however, Peters has had to put a temporary halt to her travels to study and train. She’s become a member of Chi-Alpha, a Christian Fellowship group at AU. Living in Washington D.C., she has opted to learn more about the American culture through campus speakers and attending events at the Kennedy Center of Arts. She’s also checked out many of the major historical sites including her favorite, the Lincoln Memorial.

“I just really like that spot, overlooking the Potomac,” she says.

Peters’ opinions are always welcome within the women's soccer program as well. Whether it be political and social conversations on long bus rides with assistant coach Alan Gentile-Blackwell (She’s an interesting mix!” he says of her views) or snippets on the field, Peters is always looking to learn from others.

“Whatever she is involved with, it will have leadership involved, it will be helping people, and important and unselfish,” says Brady.

Peters expects to continue her work abroad once she finishes her degree and her collegiate soccer days are over. It’s a plan that probably won’t factor in returning to the Midwest for a while.

“I would like to live overseas and do some relief and development work,” she says. “And that’s not really in Champaign!”

It might even be something the Peters can once again participate in as a family. Tara, a student at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, is also an international studies major and is considering joining the Peace Corps following graduation.

“We, as a coaching staff, would like to have more of her,” said Brady. “She’s one of the hardest workers, unselfish, and a model student-athlete.”