The shortest distance between where one is and where one should be is a straight line, but life often doesn’t allow for such an easy path to be taken.
Makayla Presgrave, goalkeeper for Idaho soccer, is graduating after two of the best seasons by a keeper in program history.
It didn’t come easily or quickly, and she had to go through the back roads to finally find her home.
Presgrave first found the game of soccer when her mother would play in recreation leagues. After moving to the West Coast, she found her place in sports— with a little push from her mom.
“My mom would always sign me up for rec seasons to play in the spring, and it kind of got to a point where I started to hit fourth and fifth grade and my mom said, ‘Alright, do you want to keep playing soccer or go towards basketball,’ like it was time to just pick one sport and start going in the club direction,” Presgrave said. “There was never a moment when I thought, ‘I love soccer,’ but I always just knew that I wanted to keep playing it.”
After moving into club play in California, she found playing in the goal worked best — and she played at a high enough level to earn a spot at the University of San Francisco.
Senior goal keeper Makayla Presgrave punches the ball from getting into the goal during the 2018 season against Eastern Washington University in the Kibbie Dome.
Despite finding success, Presgrave said she never felt at home in the Bay Area and began looking for a new place to finish out her collegiate career.
Kayleigh Frederick, defensive back for Idaho, played with Presgrave on the same club team in California, along with Bridget Daley and Hadley Sbrega. Despite parting ways when going to college, the two kept in touch.
When Frederick told Presgrave about Idaho’s search for a new keeper, she knew it was worth a shot to take a visit to Moscow.
But after coming to look at the campus, seeing the facilities and meeting the team, the Idaho culture left a mark on Presgrave.
“It really felt like a family,” Presgrave said. “I wanted to do my best for the people around me and I felt they were doing their best for me.”
Nothing emphasized this more than the team trip to North Idaho College during the 2017 spring season, where the bond between each member of the team grew.
“That was definitely the turning point for our team,” senior defender Kelly Dopke said. “We got to learn about our teammates on a different level outside of soccer and outside of being a student athlete, you learn about them on a personal level and that personal connection really makes a difference.”
Presgrave said after just a couple weeks at Idaho, she was able to be light hearted and upbeat, while still being one of the hardest workers on the team.
“(Presgrave) just has one of those smiles that draws you in,” head coach Jeremy Clevenger said. “You just automatically like her from the get-go. She is always smiling, upbeat and positive. Just someone you want to talk to and get to know.”
Julia Byerlein, goalkeeper for Idaho, said Presgrave was the type of player who comes in and helps make everything easier. Coming to practice, working hard, she would help take the pressure off and allow her competitive side to come out.
But when on the field, Clevenger said she is one of those players that just “takes challenges by the horns”, a competitive player that will do everything she can to find success and show why she belongs in the starting lineup during each game.
Presgrave took advantage of being the starter — starting every game while at Idaho and leaving her mark as one of the best keepers in program history, with the fewest goals allowed average in program history and the second most shutouts.
During the 2018 season, she was named co-Big Sky Goalkeeper of the Year, twice the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year, honorable mention All-Big Sky, tied the program record for shutouts in a season with nine and averaged less than one goal allowed per game. She is only the third Vandal to accomplish this.
“I’m not the person that needs awards or told that I’m doing a good job,” Presgrave said. “But to see all that hard work, the goalie training sessions, hard fitness and workouts come into the full picture, I was really happy.”
As she now moves on from her Idaho soccer career, Presgrave said she wants to make sure players don’t forget the experience.
“Remember to stay in the present and focus on the details to make yourself as successful as possible for the team.”
Zack Kellogg can be reached at [email protected]