Girls soccer preview: Carlie Gunkelman is hard-working leader for Buckeye

When Carlie Gunkelman was a freshman on the Buckeye girls soccer team, those who had walked in her shoes showed her how to play with confidence. Now, the junior goalie knows it's her turn to pay that wisdom forward. The Bucks will be counting on it this season. "Coming in my freshman year, it was weird playing with girls that are two, three years older than you and have experience at that level," she said. "I had a couple girls my freshman year that picked me up and helped build my confidence. "If I can do that for all the young girls on our team, I would love to help them." Gunkelman has been working hard to elevate her confidence. "I know last year, I was a little bit nervous going into games, and I want to change that," Gunkelman said. "I want to be more comfortable, especially with the way we're playing this year. We're going to have a lot of young girls that are playing, and they'll need me to be confident in myself, so they develop that confidence, too." Coming off the first district title in school history and a 13-3-3 record that included a 4-2-1 mark in the rugged Cleveland West Conference, Gunkelman and the rest of the Bucks want to prove the program has staying power. She also wants to improve her play, which has been a huge part of Buckeye's success. She had nine shutouts and only three games in which her and her defensive teammates allowed more than one goal on her way to earning All-Gazette for the first time. "I want to have more shutouts than I did last season," she said. "I would like to make at least to the regional finals and hopefully win and go for a state title." Gunkelman has the work ethic and spirit to push herself and her teammates toward those lofty goals. Even when the Bucks are working on a drill designed for the offense, she is going to make her teammates realize they are going to have to earn finding the back of the net. "Carlie's got that competitive edge to her," coach Peter Byrnes said. "She's a very competitive person. We'll be at training, doing a shooting drill and she'll be mad if the ball is going in the goal at all, even though the drill is designed for goals to be scored. "I think that competitiveness to challenge herself to save it challenges our field players to know their shot has to be good, otherwise it might not be going in." The rest of the Bucks are confident that Gunkelman will keep the ball out of the net to help the offense set up an opportunity. "Her shot-stopping is at a very high level," Byrnes said. "We say it all the time during training, if we can keep the ball out of the box, it's not very often a shot from outside the box is going to beat Carlie. It's going to be a very special shot that beats her from outside the box. "When you have that confidence in a goalkeeper as players and coaches, it permeates throughout the team." Gunkelman's work ethic was instilled at an early age on her family farm. Prior to the season, she showed four dairy cows and a pig at the Medina County Fair. Farming is a passion for Gunkelman, who will enter the education program at the Medina County Career Center, where she looks forward to working with children with disabilities. "My steers are like my babies," she said. "They were so great. Animals just get you on a different level than people do." Those farm lessons have also helped on the soccer field, where Gunkelman and her teammates saw their hard work pay off last season. "Focus at practice is everything," she said. "I know last year we had a lot of practices that were very focused, compared to my freshman year when we goofed off more at practice. That definitely changes things, especially getting ready for those bigger games. "Our schedule was very hard last year, and our coach pushed us to play the best." Gunkelman considers soccer her escape from whatever else might be going on, as well as a great way to bond with friends. The camaraderie, especially with her back line, is critical to Buckeye's defensive success. "I'm really good at reading other players and communicating it to the team," Gunkelman said. "I know the coaches really like how comfortable I am with the ball at my feet. My team is able to trust they can play the ball back to me if they need to." With her newfound comfort and confidence, Gunkelman is ready to push the Bucks to new heights. "I'm really excited, especially after last season making program history and everything," she said. "I'm hoping to go farther in the tournament this year." Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com.