Editor’s note: This summer, Star columnist Greg Hansen is counting down the top 10 of just about everything related to Tucson sports.
Today’s list: The top 10 high school girls soccer players from Tucson.
The Arizona Interscholastics Association began sponsoring girls soccer in 1990. Ready or not, Salpointe Catholic went 21-0 and won it all.
It was a historic season for a historic team.
The ’90 and ’91 Lancers, who went a combined 41-1-1, produced three of the leading girls soccer players in Tucson history. To take it a step further, the ’90 and ’91 Lancers probably had the two best players in Tucson history and three of the first four.
Talk about a good start.
Kelly Walbert Cagle, Erin Fahey and Christine Keeley left Tucson to play college soccer because the UA’s women’s soccer program did not begin until 1994.
Walbert – now Cagle – went to Duke and became a consensus All-American and 1995 Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year.
Fahey – now Emenalo – went to Portland and was a first-team All-American goalkeeper as the Pilots finished No. 2 in the NCAA.
Keeley initially went to Washington and then transferred to Arizona where she was the UA’s first impact player, making the All-Pac-10 second team in 1994 and 1995.
Over the 28 years of organized high school soccer in Arizona, Tucson teams have won 19 state championships. The quality of girls soccer in Tucson has been manifest from the beginning. Selecting a Top 10 list brimmed with 25 players who were seriously considered was tough. Here’s the list:
