‘My one passion in life’

She was born to make a game-winning penalty kick.

But Jaymian Stuermer didn’t quite know what she was made of until that fateful day almost a year ago when her Lakeland girl’s soccer team played Sandpoint. The teams were tied 2-2 after 80 minutes of play and two 10-minute overtimes. The only option left to determine who would claim victory and go on to state was a shootout. After filtering through four players on each team, it was Jaymian’s turn to shoot.

Before she walked out onto the field, head coach Mario Maddy remembers telling her one thing: “This is something you’ve played for your entire life.

“I want you to shoot last because you can put emotion behind you,” Maddy told Jaymian, a junior at the time. “She calmly stepped up there and finished it. It fits with her personality, just to step up there and do it.”

Jaymian helped push the team to a fifth-place finish that year and second place in 2005. When the Hawks took on Century High School from Boise for the championship two years ago, it was Jaymian’s first taste of state, and she wasn’t quite as calm as she was with her game-winning penalty kick.

“It was crazy,” Jaymian said. “Your mind is just processing so many things – it’s madness. It was a big stride for us though.”

Despite her soccer successes, Jaymian can’t take all the credit. The sport is something that runs in her blood. Both her brother and father played soccer, with her dad playing in Michigan at the collegiate level. Now, her father C.J. is an assistant coach for his daughter’s high school team, helping out mostly with the goal keepers.

“My dad’s always helped out with coaching,” she said. “Just having him there and then following in my brother’s footsteps (at the same time) is great – I’ve always looked up to (my brother).”

However, she said her brother and father have played very different roles in her development as an athlete.

“(My dad is) always giving me ‘The Talk’ before games: ‘You need to do this, you need to do that,’ ” Jaymian said, “but it’s good, I deserve it.”

On the other hand, her brother reminds her to just have fun.

“My brother always helped me,” Jaymian said. “He’s been there to make fun of me … he makes me enjoy it. He’s always done that in his own crazy way.”

Besides a natural talent, Jaymian has played on a club team for the past six years. This year she changed up her routine, playing in a couple of different leagues.

“I played indoor soccer and I played on an adult league with old people,” Jaymian said (her dad being one of those “old people”).

Just as Jaymian stood up to Sandpoint, she has also taken on a few obstacles as a team captain. Ten seniors graduated in the summer, leaving the team with four upperclassmen, two of which are benched with injuries.

“For a kid that’s been involved with an older team, it’s a big change,” Maddy said. “Some look at it as a detriment, but (Jaymian) looks at it as a chance to get younger kids where we’ve been in the past.”

Maddy, who is also Jaymian’s biology teacher, calls the standout midfielder a silent leader, and that she is. Jaymian said she uses her newfound authority to lift up and inspire her teammates – quietly.

“(I try) to show them they have heart,” she said. “I have one-on-one conversations and send them a letter motivating and encouraging them to do the best they can do – that’s all you can do.”

Out of all the lessons she has learned during her decade as a soccer player, Jaymian’s biggest lesson has been one of insight and development of character opposed to just skill.

“I figured out it’s my one passion in life,” Jaymian said. “I love it to death – it’s become more of who I am. It’s a part of me.”