It’s not every day an athlete is selected to participate on a national team. For certain sports, making a national team requires qualifying by achieving something like a certain time, but for junior Hailey Skolmoski of the University of Utah soccer team, it’s all about how she plays every day and how she contributes to her team that will determine if she earns a spot.
This past year, Skolmoski and her teammate, sophomore Tavia Leachman, were selected to join the United States Under-23 women’s national soccer team. Skolmoski made her way to Carson, California, where she participated in the national team camp. After her time there came to a close in January, Skolmoski headed to Orlando, Florida for another camp where she had the chance to train and compete with athletes that helped her and pushed her to grow.
“[Participating with the national team] was awesome,” Skolmoski said. “I always learn so much when I’m there with that team. It was about a week long with two-a-day trainings. The style is so much faster and a little bit different from what we do here. I just learned so much from the players because they have so much more experience than me and from the coaches, so it was awesome. I loved it.”
Not only did Skolmoski get the opportunity to train with many different players, she also had the chance to compete in two games. One was against the University of Central Florida and another against the Orlando Pride women’s team in one of its preseason matches.
Getting the chance to play against a professional soccer team like the Pride, showed Skolmoski how different the games are from what she was comfortable with in college. With a high intensity and high speed match, Skolmoski realized how much more challenging it was going to be, but it tested and forced her to work on some aspects of her game that she didn’t realize she needed to work on. Taking it as a positive learning experience for herself, Skolmoski was able to apply it to her new season with the Utes.
In the first game of the season on Sunday, Aug. 20, the Utes faced South Dakota State. The Utes trailed the Jackrabbits 1-0 for about seven minutes in the first half. Skolmoski was able to get her team back into the game with her first goal of the season, and later, she scored the final goal for the Utes, contributing to their eventual match victory.
“I think the thing I learned most with the national team is to just look for my shooting opportunities earlier,” Skolmoski said. “With the national team, [the opportunities] don’t come as often, so you have to take advantage of those and I think that was the biggest thing that helped me coming into this season. I have to make the most of the opportunities that I do get.”
Although Skolmoski said taking shooting opportunities whenever she can was the biggest learning aspect she took away from her time with the national team, she also learned how to work with the people around her. Skolmoski said last season she felt isolated a lot of the time and was own her own on the field. But in this new season, she is learning to feed off of her other teammates, like her other forward, center and midfielder.
Head coach Rich Manning said he thinks Skolmoski gained something else in her time with the national team, it helped her raise her soccer standards.
“It gave her the confidence that she is really good and she can play at that higher level,” Manning said. “It also challenged her because she saw some of the standards there and she had to keep working. I think she has a great competitive character and she has the right balance of taking confidence from it, but also taking on the challenge.”
With the new season underway, Skolmoski plans to continue to use the experience she gained with the national team to help her team progress as far as it can this year, but when it comes to a shot at being selected to play with a national team again, Skolmoski will take whatever comes her way.
“It’s kind of up in the air if I get another call or not so I just have to prove myself every time I step on the field,” Skolmoski said. “I am looking forward to it and I hope to get another opportunity, but whatever comes, comes.”
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