Goalkeeper Great Alyssa Naeher on Connecticut Homecoming: ‘It’s Special’
The Connecticut native and former USWNT goalkeeper will return to her home state to celebrate her international career prior to kickoff for the U.S. Women’s National Team match on Sunday, Oct. 26
Two-time Women’s World Cup champion.
Third-place all-time in goalkeeper caps, wins, and shutouts in USWNT history.
The 2024 U.S. Soccer Player of the Year.
The first goalkeeper in USWNT history to make three or more saves in a penalty kick shootout. Oh, she did it twice.
To compile the accomplished resume owned by Alyssa Naeher requires relentless training, adroit hands and a work-oriented mindset.
It also takes, according to Naeher, a village.
“That's the fun part of sports in general is the relationships and the connections that you make,” Naeher said. “None of us can do this on our own, so it's the village that you have. It's the people that you have in your corner.”
A village will accompany Naeher for the pre-match celebration to honor her international career at the upcoming U.S. Women’s National Team match on Sunday, Oct. 26 in East Hartford, Connecticut. To commemorate Naeher and her storied career with the USWNT, the first 2,000 fans through the gate at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field will receive a limited-edition collectible bobblehead.
“I was able to do everything that I had set out to do – and then some,” she said. “Honestly, it far exceeded my expectations, what I've been fortunate enough to be a part of. It just felt like the right time.”
Alyssa Naeher #1 of the United States poses with her father (Photo Credit: Getty Images for USSF)
A return to her home state to celebrate her decorated career with the U.S. Women’s National Team will be a special moment. Connecticut is where Naeher first learned to play soccer and where she spent the formative years of childhood, middle school and high school.
At the club level, she played at Yankee United (U-12 through U-15) and then South Central (for U-16 to U-19). In high school, she was a three-time All-State selection at Christian Heritage School. Those who will attend her pre-match celebration include her devoted family. Her parents, John and Donna, still reside in Connecticut as do many of her early influences from her youth soccer era. She credits her sisters, twin Amanda and younger sister Abby, with wrangling together some former club teammates excited to show up and support.
“'It's a small state, but we're a proud state,” Naeher said. “I'm looking forward to being able to go back… It’s been fun to see people coming out and supporting. I realize that they've kept up with my career the whole time, tracking along and sharing it with their kids and their families.”
One person who played a significant role in Naeher’s career was the goalkeeper coach she met when she was 14 years old, Paul DelloStritto. Naeher describes him as a “big brother” who is essentially part of the family. He was one of the first people to see her talent from a young age and always encouraged Naeher, known for her self-contained confidence and serious work ethic, to also have fun on the pitch.
“He always taught me goalkeepers stick together,” she said. “No matter what happens in the game, no matter what scores are like, the first person you need to find after [the game] and go shake hands with is the other goalkeeper. That always stuck out with me. That competitiveness, but also the camaraderie of the position and the respect that you have towards your opponents.”
In a state home to the UConn Huskies, which boasts 18 national championships combined in men’s and women’s college basketball, basketball played a part in Naeher’s life growing up. She played basketball all the way to her senior year of high school. She credited a lot of her success to being a multi-sport athlete, saying that it helped her stay well-rounded.
She realized that soccer would potentially provide a better avenue for her future, and she ended up playing soccer collegiately at Penn State where she was a two-time First-Team All-American.
Even though she left to play college soccer a couple states away, it was during those years when she created one of her most beloved Connecticut memories. During an away trip to play against UConn, she brought her Penn State teammates to her Connecticut home. Her parents invited everyone over, and Naeher remembers the joy she felt seeing her two worlds merge for one night, evidenced by watching her grandmother sit in a rocking chair by the fire and talk to her coach for hours.
“That memory certainly comes to mind of just where soccer had taken me,” Naeher said. “It sums up what sports can do. It mixes and blends so many different worlds and people that you would never really get to know or interact with other than this one thing that bonds you.”
On Sunday, Naeher will have another chance to merge her differing worlds together – and as someone as accomplished as she is, it will be more than just introducing her hometown to her college teammates. It will encompass an entire career’s worth of supporters – her family, friends, U.S. teammates, current Chicago teammates, youth coaches, youth teammates and all the fans who rooted for her along the way.
In essence, the entire Alyssa Naeher village.
“To be able to share that moment with them and put a ribbon on such a fun part of my life is something that I'm very grateful to get to be able to do,” she said.
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