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Clayton goalie breaks 18-year-old record at U.S. College

Former Langley United player holds career save record for the Wheeling University women’s soccer team
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Mikayla Yarwood is seen in goal for the Wheeling University Cardinals in this undated image. In September, Yarwood broke Wheeling University’s 18-year-old career save record for women’s soccer when she made her 220th save for the school. (Photo submitted: Shane Yarwood)

A local kid from Clayton Heights has broken a big record at a U.S. College.

In September, Mikayla Yarwood made her 220th career save for the Wheeling University Cardinals women’s soccer team in a game against the Notre Dame College (Ohio) Falcons. The save pushed her past former record holder Tina Dengler (2004), breaking an 18-year record at the West Virginia University.

The record-tying stop came in the 40th minute when Yarwood knocked down a Notre Dame volley just before the halftime whistle. She made seven saves total in the game.

“She’s the first goalie in the history of the (soccer) program to come close to the record,” said Yarwood’s dad, Shane Yarwood.

He said the whole family is proud of her, for both her soccer achievements and how she has matured into an adult.

“I’ve seen a lot of growth in her and a lot of maturity,” added Shane. “It’s been good for her that way.”

Shane said Mikayla used to be a shy, timid kid—so much so, he wasn’t sure she’d stay at university.

“She would never even want to go to Vancouver by herself, nevermind West Virginia,” he explained. “So this has been a great experience for her—growth-wise, maturity-wise, mentally, it’s been good.”

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Yarwood, a 2018 Clayton Heights Secondary grad, started playing soccer for Langley United when she was 10.

“She played house and then moved on to div. 1,” said Shane. “She had an opportunity to play HPL, but decided not to. She wanted to play with her friends and was noticed by the goalie coach for UBC.”

That coach told Yarwood she was good enough to play university soccer and that she’d need to reach out to U.S. Colleges if she wanted to win a scholarship.

“We hadn’t really thought about that before,” remembered Shane. “So she started to pursue that.”

Yarwood put a bunch of game highlights together and uploaded a video to YouTube. From there, she contacted 300 schools in the U.S. and got calls back from 15. Ultimately, six invited her down for campus visits and she eventually accepted a scholarship offer from Wheeling.

“It was quite a whirlwind experience,” said Shane. “Up here, we just don’t understand their system.”

Yarwood has made the dean’s list every year while at Wheeling. She is currently taking classes towards a law degree and she plans to go to law school next September somewhere in the U.S.

“Funny thing is, she actually graduated with two degrees in May,” explained Shane. “But, because of COVID, and an injury year, she is still eligible to play this year and another year after this.”

Shane said he’s not sure his daughter will use that final year of eligibility to play soccer at law school as she thinks the workload will be too high.

Yarwood plans to relocate to Washington State or Oregon after law school and practice law somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.

“It’s closer for us,” laughed Shane.



editor@cloverdalereporter.com

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Malin Jordan

About the Author: Malin Jordan

Malin is the editor of the Cloverdale Reporter.
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