Ready to ‘step it up a notch’

It’s been a family thing.

Megan Como is in her fourth year as East Valley High School’s starting goalkeeper, a job she inherited from her sister, Tiera, herself a four-year soccer starter.

“It’s been a long time,” Megan Como admitted. “My sister graduated in 2002, and I’ve been in goal ever since. Tiera Como was a four-year starter.”

The Como sisters have outlasted a handful of coaches while developing two contrasting styles.

Tiera Como, twice named the Big Sky Player of the Week last year at Eastern Washington University, played a physical game in goal, muscling her way into position and dominating play in front of her goal.

“She’s a lot stronger and bigger than I am,” Megan Como said. “I have to be quicker than she is. She has the strength to power herself up to make a play. I have to rely on my quickness to do the same thing.”

It took a while to develop her own style of play, Megan Como admitted.

“There was a time when I tried to play the game her way, but that didn’t work very well,” she laughed. “I got bounced out of a lot of plays.”

Where Megan Como has had an advantage over her sister is in the fact that she has a built-in, personal coach.

Megan Como watched her sister play four seasons in goal, and from her first day as the Knights’ freshman goalkeeper, she’s had her sister by her side.

“It was so cool watching her play for four years (at East Valley),” Megan Como said. “The whole time I knew I was going to have to fill her shoes. And my freshman year, she was right there with me the whole time because she’d had knee surgery and couldn’t play herself. She redshirted that first year at Eastern and was with me as much as she could be.

“But she’s been my coach pretty much the whole way through (high school).”

The prospect of filling her sister’s shoes was somewhat daunting, she said.

“It was easy on the one hand, because I knew her and how she’d played,” she said. “But on the other hand, it was difficult in a way. She’d had so many different coaches. Fortunately, the coach she had her senior year was there for my freshman year, so there was some continuity.

“Our teammates like to say we’re two completely different personalities, even though we’re so close to one another.”

Last year, with Megan Como in goal, the Knights advanced to the first round of the State 3A tournament, falling to finalist West Valley-Yakima on a late goal, 1-0.

With a senior team in front of her, Megan Como said, she was able to concentrate on playing her position. This year, she has to be more vocal.

“Our coach (Jeff Rose) has already told me and my sweeper, Kaylyn (Plumb), that we have to be more vocal and be more of a leader on the field,” she said. “Last year I had a very strong team in front of me. This year I have to step it up a notch.”

Monday, as East Valley dropped a nonleague game with North Central, 1-0, Tiera Como was on the sidelines, encouraging her sister.

“Tiera had a game on Sunday, and the whole family was there to watch her play, too,” Megan Como said. “She didn’t have a great game that day, either, so we were able to commiserate.”

There was a time when Megan Como wanted to play any position on the soccer field other than keeper.

“When I was younger I hated playing keeper,” she said. “If I had to play keeper, I’d get mad. And the thing was, my dad was usually our coach so I’d end up getting mad at my own dad. Growing up over the years, always being Tiera’s little sister, I learned how to play the position. She taught me how to be there.”

And now, she says, she’s thinking about, perhaps, following in her sister’s footsteps one more time.

“Tiera has been talking to me about playing college soccer,” she said. “When she first brought it up, I didn’t want to think about it because I’d been playing softball. Now that I’ve gotten into soccer mode, the idea appeals to me.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m certainly open to the idea.”