RIGHT WHERE SHE BELONGS

STORY

BY

WADE M CWHORTER

PHOTOS BY BRUCE WATERFIELD AND RYAN SCHROEDER

Some people are just always in the right place at the right time.

Grace Yochum is one of those people.

That knack has served her well, from placing her in a college town where she never thought she’d be, to allowing her to perform at a level she never thought possible in the sport she loves.

And while that skill of knowing when and where to be may come naturally, a burning desire inside fuels Yochum to thrive in those situations she places herself into.

Yochum is the most prolific scorer in Oklahoma State soccer history, but Stillwater wasn’t always in her plans.

As a star at the club and prep level in Houston, Yochum committed to play collegiately at Mississippi State.

However, the Bulldogs underwent a coaching change, and Yochum wasn’t in the plans for the new sta , who broke the news to Yochum that her original scholarship o er was being reduced.

The news was devastating.

“It was a lot of uncertainty, and it really a ected my mental health during that time,” Yochum said. “It really took a toll on me emotionally. My teachers at school could see I was di erent; my friends knew something happened and I was di erent. That whole period, those couple months, really broke me down.”

Yochum’s club coach mentioned Oklahoma State as a new option. Yochum admits she had little knowledge of the program, but she called OSU head coach Colin Carmichael and made a trip to Stillwater for the Cowgirls’ College ID Camp.

The feedback was positive. Carmichael told Yochum he wanted to watch her play one more time, and he would make an o er.

Carmichael traveled to Yochum’s hometown to watch her play in a game with her club team, Albion Hurricanes ECNL.

“That was the game that was going to determine whether I played college soccer or not,” Yochum said. “I saw them and was very, very nervous, one of the most nervous games I’ve ever played.

“I thought I played decent in the first half, but at halftime, I look up and see them walking away. The first thought was, ‘I’m not playing college soccer — they didn’t like me.’ I almost started crying but tried to keep it together.”

Turns out, Yochum had nothing to worry about. Carmichael was sold

“Grace, unbeknownst to us, saw us leaving and made the assumption that we didn’t like her, didn’t want her and she had played bad,” Carmichael said. “She came o at halftime all upset, and her club coach had to try and calm her down and let her know that all was good.

“We laugh about it now, but obviously it wasn’t funny at the time.”

After being assured by her club coach that OSU was all in, the Mississippi State nightmare was finally in the rearview mirror and served as a driving force for what was to come.

“It ended up being one of the best things that has ever happened to me because it broke me down so much, but it brought me here to Oklahoma State,” Yochum said. “If that doesn’t happen, I wouldn’t be here.

“Looking back on it, as terrible as it was, it gave me a di erent level of motivation. It gave me a chip on my shoulder, and it made me want it more.

“That whole process did teach me a lot about myself. And it brought me here. If I had to do it all over again, to come here, I would.”

Will to Win

Motivation has never been a problem for Yochum. Ask anyone who knows her to describe her, and you’re guaranteed to hear “competitive” and “hates to lose.”

Yochum said that mentality has always been a part of her makeup, as has playing sports.

From a young age, Yochum gravitated to her brother, Matthew, and their activity of choice after getting home from school was anything having to do with a ball. Whether it was throwing a football, hitting tennis balls, kicking soccer balls or shooting hoops, Yochum was always participating — and bringing a refuse-to-lose attitude with her.

“That was my favorite part of the day, that and recess — just being outside and playing any sport,” Yochum said. “My mom would have to force me to come inside. I just wanted to be outside and play.

“In elementary school, they started a soccer game of girls versus boys. The girls would always lose, and then joined, and the girls started beating the guys. That was a whole thing — the guys were annoyed. I loved it.”

Yochum’s love of competing led her to focus on two sports — soccer and basketball.

By middle school, she was already making a name for herself and turning the heads of high school coaches.

Jyusef Larry, who has been the head basketball coach at Memorial High School for more than a decade, first noticed Yochum as a seventh grader when he would work with middle schoolers following his varsity practices on Saturdays.

“From that first day, (Yochum) was just di erent. She moved di erent — she had an explosion to her that our varsity kids didn’t have,” Larry said. “I worked with her a few Saturdays and just hoped with all get out that she would come and play basketball as well as do soccer in high school.”

Larry got his wish. Yochum starred for MHS on the hardwood, establishing herself as the program’s all-time steals leader while earning a nomination for McDonald’s All-America status.

“I’ve had kids that are more skilled, but there’s just something special about that drive internally and how she elevates her teammates around her — that’s what sets her apart,” Larry said. “I deem her the ultimate competitor — that’s just who she is. It wasn’t just in games, it was in practice every day. She really only had one bad day of practice, and it was after the whole Mississippi State thing when understandably she was taken aback by that.

“She knows how to compete — she knew how to compete at an early age. And that made up for some of the lack of skill that she had at times. Her ability to problem-solve, figure things out and compete at a super high level was amazing.”

Memorial High’s soccer coach, Lindley Amarantos, has similar sentiments for a player who amassed 49 goals and a program-record 46 assists on the pitch during a prep career that saw her claim numerous honors, including the Houston Chronicle’s All-Greater Houston Player of the Year award and 15-6A All-District MVP accolades in 2018.

“(Yochum) has a quiet way of being competitive — she’s not really vocal about it,” Amarantos said. “There’s so much natural athleticism there, and then she’s so smart and knows what to do and where to be, that’s what has allowed her to have so much success. Multiple times, we were in situations where we were behind or playing in a really tough game, and she just put it on her shoulders to go out there and take care of the situation.

“Her senior year, we won the state championship. In both the semifinal and final game, she went out there and in the first five minutes scored a goal. She just took it upon herself to go out there and set the tone from the get-go.”

As Yochum’s career progressed at the collegiate level, so did that desire to win.

“She’s just so competitive, and you see that every day — she just does not like losing. And I love that,” Carmichael said. “We lose a game, she’s angry. She eventually lets it go, she does a pretty good job balancing it, but that’s what drives her more than anything. She wants to be the best. She wants our team to win all the time.

“That’s what the great ones have. You just don’t like losing, you hate that feeling. And Grace, beyond the records and proving people wrong, just her will to compete drives her. She just doesn’t like not being the best.”

During her five-year career in Stillwater, Yochum’s will to win was on full display, and she helped lead the Cowgirls to nearly 50 victories, the third NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearance in program history and a Big 12 regular season championship.

“That just stems from that being in me — it’s in my DNA,” Yochum said. “Even in the middle school days, if we would lose a game, I wouldn’t talk after. My dad would want to talk about the game, and I would just be silent because I was so frustrated. It would literally ruin the rest of my week.

“When we lose here, I can’t stop thinking about it until the next game. Colin tells me don’t get so high on the highs and so low on the lows, but I do that.

“But it’s also what drives me because I don’t want to feel that way.”

She Shoots, She Scores

Yochum will tell you she’s not a goal scorer.

That statement seems silly, laughable even, as she is in the Cowgirl Soccer record book as the top scorer in program history, with over 40 career goals and nearly 100 points.

More accurate would be to say Yochum is not a conventional goal scorer. From her defensive midfielder position, her scoring ability goes back to that knack for being in the right place at the right time.

“You think of goal scorers, you think of forwards. Well, Grace isn’t a forward — her strength is not playing up that high and having all the play behind her. She’s very good coming onto the game, crashing the 18 (yard box) late and things like that,” Carmichael said.

“She is a goal scorer. She’s just not your forward predator inside the 18. She finds other ways to score — she scores headers, she scores free kicks, she scores penalties, and she scores crashing the box late. That’s her strengths.

“I agree she’s not the prototypical natural goal scorer, but she’s a super goal threat to have on the field who just has so many ways she can hurt you.”

Yochum did that from the moment she set foot on campus in 2018. She started over 80 games for the Cowgirls, scoring four goals as a freshman and following that up with 11 as a sophomore and 12 in 2020 to rank among the NCAA leaders that season.

She’s also showcased a penchant for clutch scores — over half of her goals were game winners, and she led the NCAA with eight game-winning goals in 2020.

— GRACE YOCHUM

“I still don’t think I’m a true goal scorer — I’m a defensive player,” Yochum said. “But after my sophomore year of college, when I had that big season, that’s what kind of opened my eyes to ‘Oh, I could maybe do this.’

“But my focus is defense, and the goals just seem to come. I try to play back, see the game, quarterback and facilitate, be a playmaker. I just want to help the team.”

Yochum’s unique skillset allows her to do just that. She credits her impressive ball-hawking skills to those backyard sessions with her brother that saw her tracking down punted footballs and soccer balls.

“For a kid Grace’s height to move the way she moves is really impressive,” Carmichael said. “Athletically, her balance, her ability to cover ground on the field, tracking balls in the air — a lot of things you see in elite athletes, she has. Then her vision on the field and her ability to spray passes from the midfield is special.

“And for me, as far as her heading ability, Grace would be the best that we’ve had at Oklahoma State. Grace’s ability to track and judge a ball in the air and then to be a threat, just knowing what balls are going to end up in the 18 (yard box) and tracking them, she’s at the top of the list. And then her ability to redirect the ball intentionally is really good. Some kids are just happy to get their head on the ball, but Grace is intentional — she can direct the ball.”

O the Field and Beyond

Yochum graduated with a degree in education and a minor in coaching in May 2021.

She could have embarked on a professional soccer career or began her journey as a coach, both things she still aspires to do.

But she didn’t want her time in Stillwater to end so soon.

Along with the career goals record, Yochum also became only the fifth player in OSU history to earn All-Big 12 status four times. And as if she needed any further validation, both Larry and Amarantos make mention that Gary Koch, Memorial High School’s athletic director and head football coach for nearly four decades, says Yochum may be the best athlete — male or female — to ever come through Memorial High School.

Just as important, Yochum was having fun immersing herself into the community and the Stillwater club soccer scene, something she saw former teammate Jaci Jones do before her and wanted to emulate.

Following games at Neal Patterson Stadium, dozens of young girls and aspiring soccer stars would flock to Jones, who thrived on the interaction.

Yochum took over that role during her final two seasons — following every home game, her rock star status was on display as smiling girls made their way to the Cowgirl midfielder for high fives, photos, and lots of smiling moments.

“Seeing how those girls loved Jaci, I thought, ‘That’s what I want to be. I want to be that role model for little girls,’” Yochum said. “I’ve been working with those girls for just a year and a half but coaching them and then seeing them come out to the games has been so cool.

“Being able to dive more into the community and kind of give back to what’s been given to me has been amazing. And I’m still trying to do more.”

It helps that Yochum’s is an infectious personality.

“She’s such a phenomenal person. She doesn’t take anything too seriously even though she is so competitive,” Amarantos said. “Because she has that lightheartedness to her, it makes her approachable for everyone. She does a good job encouraging others to work hard just by being herself and coming out every day and working hard. She’s just so fun-loving and positive, and everyone else pulls energy o that and gravitates towards her naturally.”

Added Carmichael, “It’s been great to see her grow She’s a big part of the team o the field as well — on the bus, in hotels and restaurants, she’s lively, she’s a character, she’s always clowning and making people laugh.

“She’s that fun kid o the field, but she’s ultra-driven the moment it comes to soccer. She wants to win, she wants to compete, she hates losing. She balances it well and knows when it’s time to turn that switch and really get after it.”

Those traits bode well for a future coaching career as Yochum aspires to reward her future athletes with the life-changing experiences she enjoyed.

“I’ve always felt like I wanted to be a mentor, leader, coach, whatever that may be, and I’ve had some of the best teachers and coaches in high school who I still talk to who are so supportive and who have really lifted me up,” Yochum said. “After experiencing them doing what they’ve done for me, I want to do that. I want to be that person for other kids.

“Being in college has opened my eyes to how much pressure but how fun being a college coach would be. It’s a lifestyle — you are living it. It’s not a 9-to-5 thing, it’s your life.”

And Yochum already knows where she wants to lead that life — back at the school that gave her the opportunity to flourish. Yes, she says, she’s gunning for Carmichael’s job

“It’s always a joke between us, but that would be amazing,” Yochum said. “Ten, twenty, thirty years down the road, if I do come back (as head coach), that would be a sweet moment for me. For what this program has done for me, to

come back and lead it would be incredible.”

“I hope she gives me a couple of years before she tries to do that,” Carmichael said with a laugh. “But whatever that kid sets her mind to do, she’s going to be big time, whether it’s playing, coaching, teaching, no doubt she’ll be a success.”

That once may have been hard to fathom for the teenager who thought her soccer career was over.

But for Grace Yochum, being in the right place at the right time, in this case Stillwater, Oklahoma, was just another in a line of seized opportunities.

“I never in a million years thought it would be this rewarding, this fun, this challenging,” Yochum said. “No one really prepares you for this. You just have to experience it. I never thought I would have this much success.

“It’s amazing. I’ve been challenged and pushed beyond limits I thought I could reach. I’ve loved my time here. It’s why I came back for a fifth year. I tried to make the most of my time because I wanted to leave this place better than when I came in.”