Olivia Sekany, a Livermore native and former University of Washington goalkeeper, is gearing up for her professional debut. Gina Woodward-Irwin, our head of Women’s Soccer, spoke with her a few weeks before the NWSL Draft about her journey to this point and her professional goals.
Gina Woodward-Irwin: Let’s start it off, when did you fall in love with the sport?
Olivia Sekany: Yeah, so I started out when I was seven, which is actually a little bit late for soccer. Most of the, most of the girls that I’ve played with were like three, four years old. I was, I was like seven, so I think I was in like second grade, and it’s really big, obviously in the Holt Bay area. But in my hometown, Livermore, there were a bunch of kids that played soccer.
And kids I went to school with were playing soccer. So I asked my parents to sign me up and pretty much from the jump, I was just locked in. I, I loved it. And you know, just as I sort of climbed the ranks, I started out on a little rec team, like we all do. I was on the shooting stars and I didn’t name because I thought it was so girly and wimpy, and I wanted to be tough, even though I was like seven.
I started out, started out playing rec and then, you know, just next year my mom realized pretty quickly, both my parents realized pretty quickly that I was very, very competitive and that the recreational just for fun thing was really not my jam. And so they put me into competitive soccer, I think I was like 10 and never looked back.
I think the moment that always sticks out in my head to me in terms of really, really falling in love with the sport was watching the 2011 Women’s World Cup and watching the quarter final game between the US and Brazil and singing and watching it on TV and just being absolutely captivated.
GWI: So that was your ignition moment, right? kind of watching them play. Really quick, to give some background; Your dad, your brothers, aren’t they high level baseball players? Even though it’s not the same sport, I have a similar background, but that mentality was there.
OS: Yeah, we’re a very competitive type A family. Like you said, my dad played professional baseball. My other siblings played sports growing up. My brother is coming up in competitive baseball right now. He’s still in high school, but he’s gonna do the whole college baseball thing.
We’re a family of athletes, high performing individuals. And so they realized pretty quickly that I was gonna follow along that path as well. And that rec and just “doing stuff for fun” was not really my gig.
“One of my icons to this day is Peter Schmeichel, he’s a legend.”
I was on a team where there were three other kids that also wanted to play in goal, and I was not having that. Obviously we’re not playing competitive, so it’s not like the best kid plays apparently. I went to my mom and just went on this whole rant about like, I don’t even understand why they’re playing. I’m the best, I should be the only goalkeeper. I don’t understand what the problem is. Because from the jump too, I knew I wanted to be in goal and that was my thing.
GWI: That was going to be my next question, were you always a goalkeeper? Like was that just your thing?
OS: Yeah. From my first season ever playing soccer, I was a goalkeeper and I think, again, I don’t really remember how it started other than that I remember I wasn’t very fast and I was always tall , so that was just a natural progression. I always loved it.
And again, I’m from a family of type A’s and have a very type A, high achieving personality. I want things done a certain way. And that personality lends well to the goalkeeper position because you have to be a field general and you have to boss everybody around all the time.
I think from a young age I enjoyed that aspect of it. And there’s just an edge to the goalkeeper position that I was always drawn to. You know, everybody says we’re all a little bit crazy.
GWI: As a goalkeeper, who were some of your biggest influences growing up?
OS: My first goalkeeper coach ever. This was when I was probably eight or nine, like still very early on in my career. I had a team coach that was awesome and is still like, I still credit her with honestly a lot of my development and a lot of fostering my love for the sport. Her name was Coach Nancy
One of my icons to this day is Peter Schmeichel, he’s a legend. One of the things that stood out to me when I was a kid, was he’s so “on it” and gets what he needs done, done. He’s just so intense and so locked in and the most insane competitor you’ve ever seen. On top of that, he was a fabulous, technical goalkeeper. He was one of the first goalkeepers that I really watched clips of and really tried to model my play after.
GWI: Let’s kind of dial back into growing up in the Bay Area. What was it like playing soccer in up here? I’m from Southern California, so my introduction to the Bay was at Cal and then playing professionally up here. But tell me more about your youth career growing up here.
OS: I started out playing rec at Livermore Youth Soccer League, which I don’t even know if that exists anymore. Then I joined Livermore Fusion through the time that I was, I think 13. It was around that time, like eighth grade when I started training with Nate, Nate Dog.
At that point too, recruiting and everything starts so early, but I’d known for a while at that point that I wanted to play college soccer, and I just wanted to keep going and take it as far as I could. Through conversations with him (Coach Nate) and my parents, we determined that it was best for me and my development to transition over to a club that had ECNL teams. Elite clubs, national League. So RAGE was kind of the natural choice because I was already working with Nate and it’s close by.
College Recruitment
GWI: I guess that’s a nice transition, can you, especially as a goalkeeper, talk about the college recruitment process, what was it look like for you?
OS: It was stressful. I knew I had my sights set pretty early on the level that I wanted to play at, and fortunately, the college recruiting process looks a little bit different now, girls aren’t committing quite as early, but the process, they had me start sending out emails as soon as I got onto that ECNL team in eighth grade. They were like, all right, come up with a list of the colleges that you’re interested in and just start sending out emails to their coaches. Just like, get your name out there. I was like, Jesus, I’m 13.
Right now, I’m 5’11, pretty muscular, I roster at six foot, but you know coming out of middle school, about to start high school, I was like 5’8 and like a little twiggy thing. You know, not turning any heads in terms of walking around an event where you’re “like, oh my God that’s an elite looking goalkeeper”. So that was another point at which people kind of raised eyebrows and said maybe, you know, calibrate your expectations a little bit.
The Schools that I was interested in were Stanford, Ucla, Cal, Washington, Pac-12 and some ACC schools, all top tier power five division one programs. And everybody was kind of looking at me sideways like, “all right kid, like that’s cool or whatever, like maybe be realistic”.
I was at a point where girls were already committing and had been committed. Girls were committing in their freshman year of high school to these top programs and I knew that I was nowhere even close to my peak, that I was still developing and I was still growing and it was nerve-wracking because I felt like I was gonna run out of time before I really hit my stride.
My first good D one offer that I was like, “okay, we’re getting somewhere, like we’re making some progress and we’re getting a little bit of traction.” Was Santa Clara.
I really had to do a lot of the legwork and get myself in front of these coaches. So that offer came from me going to an ID camp. I went, I had emailed them. I was relentless again with the bothering, I narrowed it down to my top 15 to 20 schools and I just kept at it and plastered their emails.
GWI: So when did my bears come get in the line? And why did you choose Cal?
OS: Yeah. So Cal came into the picture later and like in a kind of odd fashion, so like I said, so many girls committed so early to these top tier division one schools. So Cal had been kind of crossed off of my list because there was a really good goalkeeper who, funny enough, again, soccer (community) is so small, I’m actually pretty good friends with now who had been committed to Cal since like the end of our eighth grade year.
So we’re the same age. And the thing with goalkeepers that also makes the recruiting process difficult is, it’s pretty much the case across the board, schools will take one goalkeeper at most per recruiting class if at all. The roster will usually be like three to four goalkeepers.
So Cal already had a girl committed for my year and so I was like, okay, we’ll cross that off the list, whatever. And on a whim I happen to be looking at stuff on top drawer soccer, and for some reason looked at the commits for Cal. That’s also how I knew that Hillary had committed. And I saw that she had de-committed, like her name wasn’t on the list and there was a thing about her having switched and she was now going to Michigan.
So I texted none other than Nate Dog. And he was like, “oh, I used to coach the goalkeeper coach there, let me send her a text and see what the deal is”. And this was on a Tuesday and she texted him right back and asked, “can she be at the ID camp we’re doing on Saturday?” And I was like, “yep, sure i’ll be there!”
I showed up and put myself in front of the coaches and played really well. Then a couple weeks later, she came out to a showcase that we were doing and watched me play, and they had me back for a visit. The whole thing happened over the course of six weeks between that initial contact and when I verbally committed right after my unofficial visit.
A Fresh Start
GWI: So, million dollar question. Why did you choose to transfer to UW (University of Washington)? You know I was gonna ask it lol.
OS: I knew you we’re gonna ask. So unfortunately, the feeling of positivity and everything on my unofficial visit, did not translate over into my time at Cal in the soccer program. I’ve spoken about this publicly many times, but it was a very toxic and difficult environment to be in every single day.
I really did enjoy living in Berkeley and like I enjoyed going to the school, but obviously like knowing for a long time that I wanted to play professionally and soccer was realistically my priority. I knew that if I wanted to continue to develop and if I was going to be the player that I knew I was capable of being, I couldn’t stay there.
GWI: Why UW? Did you do the transfer portal thing too? UW was one of my choices and that place is beautiful. What did you find there that you didn’t have at Cal?
OS: So again, unconventional, weird situation that ended up taking me there. The story of my career. I planned things out and they just don’t end up going the way that I want, but I end up in the right spot somehow anyway.
I entered the transfer transfer portal, and I made it very clear to my family, to the coaches that were advocating for me, and while talking to people in the portal, that like I did not wanna stay in the PAC 12. I just wanna get a fresh start.
I blanket emailed pretty much the entire country, every Power five school except for the PAC 12.
I emailed coaches and got a lot of bites, you know, I talked to a ton of SEC and ACC schools. Then a few of the Big XII schools I think as well. I entered the transfer portal mid-December of 2019 and all of this was happening in February and January of 2020.
GWI: Mm-hmm…Oh my!
OS: Yeah. So you can all guess where this story is headed.
I had some offers on the table. I was pretty much ready to go to West Virginia. I had been on an official visit out there. I talked to a bunch of schools, but I only got the chance to go on two official visits, and I went to Pitt and West Virginia, which conveniently, and I didn’t know until I went, they fly in and out of the same airport, they’re close by.
So I was like, all right, this is two birds, one stone. I really enjoyed my visit to both schools, but West Virginia really stuck out to me. I was ready to go and then their goalkeeper situation at the time was like a little bit up in the air in terms of their starter at the time potentially needing season ending surgery.
I was at a point where I only had two years of eligibility left and I knew I wanted to go pro, which meant that I needed to play. I’m not asking for a guarantee, but if there’s somebody that’s a pretty well established starter already in the program, that’s a pretty significant hump to overcome. If I can avoid that, that would be ideal.
She potentially needed surgery and she was going to be out. So I was like, “okay, perfect. I’ll just slide right in there, play my two seasons, and be out”. She was young too, so she was going to have time, she’ll recover, she’ll hop in after me, it’s gonna be great.
Then things changed right at the last second, I was literally getting ready to accept my offer and turns out she got a second opinion that said that she wasn’t gonna need surgery. So that changed things pretty significantly.
It’s wigged me out a little bit and I don’t have a great feeling about it and I’m just going to go with my gut. I decided to pass and was kind of back to square one. I was reaching back out to some other schools and had nothing on the table. Then everything shut down for covid.
GWI: Covid. Yep. My gosh.
OS: Yeah. And when that happened, they put a stop on pretty much everything, recruiting included. So from March of 2020 to mid-May, there was nothing going on in terms of college recruiting. And I’m freaking out!
I had nowhere to go. Didn’t have any offers on the table. I wasn’t on a team. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t on a soccer team. That was scary, and I was racking my brain, weighing all my options. At that point I had graduated early from Cal. So I was like: “Well I have my degree. Do I just say screw it?” Do I just go try to play overseas and go straight to pro? Do I take a gap year and train and work until something else happens? Because we also didn’t know if the world was gonna open back up, like what was gonna happen?
We kind of started to get the sense that things were moving in the direction, that there was going to be college athletics again. At that point it was end of May and Nate, who I was still training with through quarantine said, “Hey, I know you told me you don’t wanna be in the PAC 12, but the staff at Washington is brand new, and I know the goalkeeper coach that just got hired there, and he’s a really good guy and I think you should talk to him.”
GWI: Nice!
OS: I was like, all right, you know what? for you, I’ll do it, fine.
And I got on the phone with Paul Hart, who is now the goalkeeper coach at Stanford, but had just gotten hired and he and I clicked and vibed right away. Then I got on the phone with Nicole, our head coach, like a week after that. By mid-June I had verbally committed and I was a husky. So very, very unexpected, very windy road to get to Washington. But that’s where we ended up.
GWI: So tell me, what are your favorite memories?
OS: That first season that I was up there was one for the books. I mean, like, it was incredible. We overcame a lot of stuff that season. We had a ton of injuries and weird stuff was happening with Covid. Every other day we were like, “are we gonna get to keep playing? Is this gonna get canceled?” You know, but all of that really brought us closer together and we’re in it together, we’re doing this thing, whatever.
We ended up going to the (NCAA) tournament and we were in a bubble, It was tough because we weren’t allowed to do a lot. Every night we were out there in North Carolina, we would walk to this park by our hotel because we couldn’t even have meals together inside. We would all just sit outside and have our meals together, just talking and that was awesome. Being there with everybody in itself was a really awesome memory.
Another memory was that round of 32 game that went to PKs and I ended up saving a PK and scoring the winning PK to put us through to the Sweet 16. It’s not something that I was anticipating ever doing, but probably up until that point, that’s the best night of my life. It was just the most incredible feeling.
Going Pro
GWI: So what what do you want? Like what do you see? What are your goals? Do you wanna stay in the domestic league? Do you wanna go overseas? Are you open? What are your dreams, girl?
OS: I’m really open, honestly at this point. Like you said, everything happens for a reason and there’s a lot of uncertainty at this point in things because the draft is next month and overseas stuff doesn’t really materialize until after that. So I have no idea where in the world I’m gonna be living two months from now, which is nuts and kind of scary.
I also have this feeling that things are just gonna work out the way that they’re supposed to. And I put myself in a good position. So I’m really open. If I got drafted, I would love to play for a team here. I think that the league is making really great strides and getting better every year.
But then at the same time, I would absolutely love to go overseas. I think that’s honestly kind of the direction that I’m leaning right now because for starters, it’s really difficult for a rookie goalkeeper in the NWSL to play because there’s so much talent and there’s so many older goalkeepers. And I think that going somewhere where I could play for my first few seasons would be really valuable just going forward in my career.
GWI: I know you’ve entered yourself into the draft, so obviously you are invested in that. But I really want to highlight this is for all those kind of youth female soccer players out there; Keep your options open. Be open-minded and be excited for all kinds of new opportunities. I think that’s really awesome because I feel a lot of times, growing up playing ECNL, people can get their eggs in one basket and kind of get lost in that little hole. But the fact that you have your eyes open to everything is really incredible.
OS: I couldn’t agree more and that’s something, like I mentioned before, I’m very much a planner and as I’ve grown and matured, especially over the last few years, it’s taken me a long time to get to this point. I think I’m really moving in the direction of letting go of having such a vice grip on this path that I’m taking and this is how it has to look.
I’m recognizing that, just because something doesn’t look the way that you always thought it would, doesn’t mean that it’s any less valuable or that it’s wrong. You know what I mean? Like, my college experience looked absolutely nothing like what I would’ve told you it was gonna look like if you asked me when I was a senior in high school.
GWI: Yeah. But girl, that’s success in itself; Having that kind of mindset already of, you know what? I know I’m ready, I’m preparing and I’m ready to embrace whatever comes at me. And I think that’s really admirable.
So, as you are planning or dreaming, give me your top three or four NWSL teams that you would love to play for just for fun, And then I’m gonna ask you your favorite European team. So let’s go NWSL first, Which teams would it be?
OS: Okay, this is a little biased because I did get to train with them over the summer, but the OL Reign. I have friends that are on the team and one of my really good friends that I played with at UW got drafted by them last year.
So I would say there, sticking with the PNW, I think that the soccer culture in Portland and play would be absolutely incredible. That would be a super, super fun one, and obviously they’re a great team. They just won the league, but that would be awesome. San Diego would be really awesome. I’ve actually gotten to train a fair amount with Kailen Sheridan, their starting goalkeeper at the Keeper Institute when I go back east. She’s incredible!
I don’t know, there’s like a lot of good spots. I’m a little biased because my mom grew up in the Chicago area and I was actually…
“I could pick anywhere, like go to PSG. To go live in Paris and play professional soccer, are you kidding me? Yeah”
GWI: Why did I know you were gonna say Chicago? I knew!
OS: I think it’s just such a cool city and like I don’t know. I’d get to go play a little bit with Emily Boyd, who took me under her wing at Cal. I don’t know, it’d be familiar roles, like a little deja vu.
GWI: A great person too!
OS: Exactly. So yeah. And then in terms of oversees…
GWI: Give me three.
OS: I mean okay, obviously I gotta go Man United, That would be incredible. Anywhere in the Spanish League, soccer culture in Spain is just nuts and like they’re, they’re growing so rapidly. And then, again, dream big, if I could pick anywhere, like go to PSG. To go live in Paris and play professional soccer, are you kidding me? Yeah. Those would be my picks.
GWI: Yep, for sure. It’s like, are you dreaming? or is this another way of planning? sending out those vibes into the universe, there’s something to work for, Right? And whatever opportunity you get. Having your eyes set on something bigger is always a good thing,
OS: For Sure! Being open to whatever comes your way, as well as preparing and being ready, because you never know what’s around the corner. You have to prepare, because you have control over that. You’re prepared for it.
Although Olivia wasn’t selected in the NWSL draft, she is currently training with Racing Louisville and in competition for a roster spot. You can follow Olivia’s journey via social media @liv_sekany