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Pickerington Central grad leads U.S. Women’s Beach Soccer National Team
On a cool, gusty autumn morning, with the skyline of downtown Columbus in the distance, a worldclass athlete trains. Her bare feet plunge in and out of the chilly sand of an outdoor volleyball court as her leg muscles first warm then burn with high knee lifts, sprints, maneuverability drills and dribbling exercises. All alone and far from the environment in which she typically excels, Pickerington High School Central graduate and captain of the U.S. Women’s Beach Soccer National Team Megan Wharton relies on her own drive and determination to put herself through the paces.
As the only member of the team not based in California, she runs her own solo training sessions.
“It’s tough knowing that it’s just me out here,” says Wharton.
Over the years, she is thankful to have found herself with an extensive support group of friends in central Ohio who have played beach soccer and are glad to get together and help her get some fitness on the sand.
“That has been extremely helpful, but that’s just not always the case,” she says. “It “I wanted to play never played soccer before; so many different elements, so many different things is just kind of like that extra ounce of motivation that you have to find the sand, get at the highest level to figure out and challenges. But I instantly kind of fell in love. You grow up with out to it and just crank out that workout.” Soccer has been a major part of Whar- possible while still this competitive spirit and, all of a sudden, you’re handed a sport that you’ve played ton’s life for almost all of it. “I started playing when I lived in West being able to go to for 26 years and it’s, ‘Wait, I’m not good at it anymore,’ so it becomes kind of addictVirginia with my mom and dad,” she says. school for what, ing to try and rebuild your skills but in a “I was about 3 years old. They actually had to sign a waiver because I was too young academically, I different environment.” After switching from sod to sand, to play. From then, soccer was the sport for me. Anything else, I just wasn’t really wanted to.” Wharton quickly realized much of what she had learned from a lifetime on the interested in it.” pitch no longer applied.
A few years later, Wharton moved “With beach soccer, a lot of it is played with her family to Pickerington and played in the club leagues. A in the air solely because the sand is so unpredictable,” she says. graduate of PHSC, Wharton was a four-year varsity starter and a “The ball could be a perfect pass to you on the ground. It hits a captain her senior year. sand mound, it’s going left or it’s going right or it’s going to pop
“I loved my time there,” she says. “It was great playing with up right in your face. You have no idea what’s going to happen.” high school friends; more of a social sport that you just kind of Another major adjustment came in the form of fitness. got to enjoy.” “Physically it is a grind. That physical grind of running
From her performance in club with Blast FC out of Wester- through sand, playing soccer on sand – the intensity is probably ville, Wharton was recruited by Ohio Dominican which, at the double of what you’re going to experience on grass or turf,” she time, was in the process of moving up from NAIA to NCAA Divi- says. “When you’re in sand you’re using so many different mussion II for athletics. For Wharton, it was an exciting prospect. cles compared to what you would be using on turf. With sand
“I wanted to play at the highest level possible while still be- it’s more of resistance training so you’re building strength in your ing able to go to school for what, academically, I wanted to,” legs, you’re building that speed because when you’re sprinting Wharton says. in sand, you feel like you’re going 100 miles an hour but you’ve
The fit was perfect, and Wharton spent the next four years only moved three feet.” playing as a Panther while earning her degree. After graduat- Wharton embraced the challenges and excelled. Playing for ing, she went through a transition that many high-level collegiate beach soccer teams on both coasts, she quickly made a name for athletes go through. Something that played a central role in her herself in the sport. Then, when rumblings started in 2019 that U.S. life for what seemed like forever was gone. Soccer, riding high off that year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup victory
So, Wharton had to ask herself: How do I maintain my rela- by the Women’s National Team, were looking to form a women’s tionship with soccer as an adult? The answer was participating in beach soccer national team, Wharton found herself in the running. co-ed indoor games just to stay active and involved. “The call and the email came that they were building a U.S.
Then, about four years ago, a friend asked Wharton if she Women’s Beach Soccer National Team and it was a surreal mowanted to play in a beach soccer tournament in Virginia. Eager ment; you get an email with the U.S. Soccer crest on it and you’re for the prospect of something new, she was enthusiastic to try like, ‘This isn’t spam, is it? Are they trying to sell me something?’” out what she expected to be a fairly easy transition. she says, laughing. “But you see your name on a roster and my
“Little did I know it was completely different,” she says, first-grade dreams of becoming a pro soccer player are coming laughing. “It was extremely hard and it made me feel like I’d true, just maybe not on grass.”
All joking aside, Wharton says she could not be more thrilled to be not only a founding member of the team, but their first captain as well.
“First and foremost, it is a huge honor,” she says.
Once the team was formed, it took off on a whirlwind of a start. Within weeks, the women were off to El Salvador for an ANOC World Beach Games Qualifier.
“The whole aspect of meeting your teammates that you’re going to be competing with for the next week and a half 45 minutes before your first training session is one of those, like, all right, there’s not time for egos, there’s not time for drama, there’s no time for any of this; we have a bigger purpose,” Wharton says. “We’re the foundation of this inaugural beach soccer team for women. We need to set a great example. We need to build this strong foundation based on great character and great leadership and great teammates.”
After only 45 minutes of training together, the team hit the sand for their first game and unfortunately fell to traditional U.S. rivals and eventual tournament winners: Mexico. But the team bounced back with wins against the Bahamas and hosts El Salvador, eventually placing second in the tournament.
Before the end of the year, the women went on to compete in the World Beach Games in Qatar after another team was forced to drop out. They finished that tournament with a one and two record, ending the year with a win over Paraguay. With two tourneys under its belt, the U.S. Women’s Beach Soccer National Team was primed to hit the world stage in a big way and take 2020 by storm.
Unfortunately, everyone can surmise how the next 12 months of their story played out.
With all events and all official practices canceled for the foreseeable future, Wharton isn’t sure when the team will pick up again. But whenever it does, she knows the team will be ready thanks to weekly virtual training sessions as well as every member of the team’s commitment to putting in the work and staying at peak performance.
And, as she works out alone in that chilly sand near downtown, Wharton knows that there may still be even colder days ahead, but she doesn’t let it phase her one bit. As her relationship with soccer has evolved over the years, she’s embraced that evolution and continually reinvented her place in the game.
For Wharton, the privilege of leading her team into 2021 will be no different.
“Honestly, the best way to describe it is – all caps – EXCITED,” she says. “We are more than ready for our next step.”
Bram Fulk is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@ cityscenemediagroup.com.
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