University of California-Merced commit Anna Carter was recently named the Freedom High School Female Athlete of the Year after a successful multi-sport career. Carter is the first to get the award in the Winter Sports Bracket based on her choices of soccer, water polo and swimming.
“I was really happy to win something on my own. I had to work hard by myself and decided if I wanted to work hard or not for four years. It was something I worked on since I Freshmen year to get all the points needed,” said Carter.
Carter has earned a total of 10 letters, 4 in soccer, 4 in water polo and 2 in swimming. She is only the 4th student in school history to earn 10 letters.
Carter admits she is a super competitive person by nature and strives to be the best.
“I am super competitive with everything I do. It’s kind of a problem,” joked Carter. “When you play sports, it turns everything into a competition. I wanted to get BVAL MVP, but ended up team MVP. I felt like I worked hard to get it, but I am happy I was recognized by the team.”
While she admits soccer is her first love, she was drawn to water polo in her freshman year and earned MVP and Captain Honors. She also maintained a 3.8 Grade Point Average while participating in NCS 4 times in soccer, and once in both Water Polo and Swimming.
Carter is also a member of the National Honor Society and has made the Honor Roll every semester. She is active in her church youth group and will be traveling this summer with the science departments from Freedom and Heritage.
She estimated up to twenty-five hours of training each week for sports plus games. The hard part was finding time for all her school work and other activities. She stated it was a balancing act throughout her career to try to achieve her goals while keeping up with her responsibilities.
“Big projects in school put a lot of pressure on me. I was out in Concord until 8 pm most nights and would have to come home and do all the work and still go to bed at a decent hour,” explained Carter.
Although Carter found success in soccer and water polo, she also had participated in track and field as well as swimming. She stated when it came to track and field; she just didn’t have the love for it so that was short-lived.
Still, her advice to incoming freshmen girls is to just get out there and try something.
“Put yourself out there and don’t be afraid to fail. Trying is a huge step. If you don’t put yourself out there, you won’t accomplish anything,” said Carter.
She explained how she began her career in water polo after a friend suggested it. She had reservations but found it challenging after trying it out. She ended up making varsity as a freshmen and playing all four years.
When asked if there was any one moment that stood out during her career, she immediately went to the first NCS home game in school history.
“The first NCS home game when we went into penalty kicks and there was a girl who if she made it, we would win and she made it. It went crazy and we made school history. It was like did that really happen,” explained Carter.
In regards to her signing with UC-Merced, Carter is excited and will play for their soccer team while pursuing a career as a veterinarian.
“I like the campus and the coach is really awesome. One of my friends from my competitive soccer league is going there as well. I can’t wait to be on my own and being independent while looking forward to a new team which becomes like a family once we start playing together,” said Carter. “They will be my new sisters.”
Her dad, Steve Carter, is proud of his daughter’s accomplishment and the choices she made.
“I am very proud of her and what she has accomplished with keeping up with her grades and it got to a 4-year school. I can’t be more happy and it’s a great opportunity for her. It’s a busy life with her,” said Carter.
Carter credits her teachers for keeping her on track and praised her longtime Coach Paco Gonzales. She has been on his team and has helped train her for about 8-years time now between High School and Club soccer.
“He always knew how to get me going when I was slacking off. He was blunt, but called it as he saw it,” said Carter.
Steve Carter shared that the relationship between a parent and coach is important. He agreed with his daughter that he tells it like it is and that benefited his daughter.
“Paco has been very good for us as a coach. He was real open about his coaching style. If we had an issue, he would sit and talk to us and thorough in his explanation. We appreciate him very much and what he has done,” said Carter.
Here is a little profile courtesy of UC-Merced.
Anna Carter comes to UC Merced from Oakley, California where she played four years of both soccer and water polo at Freedom High School. Carter earned 1st Team All-Conference her Sophomore thru Senior seasons, Team MVP her Junior and Senior season, served as captain her Senior year, and was a four year scholar athlete. Carter plays club for Diablo FC with another future Bobcat in Daisy Bonilla. Together they took Diablo FC to the 2012 UC Club National IX – Super Group. “I am looking forward to adding Anna to our already strong defense. She has a strong presence in the back line and in the air. I believe she will have an immediate impact on our program.”
Here is how an athlete accumulates points which has been provided by Athletic Director Steve Amaro. He stated that this was a close race and that the top two athletes were just five points apart.
- League MVP – 7 pts.
- All League 1st Team – 5 pts.
- All League 2nd Team – 4 pts.
- All league Honorable Mention – 3 pts.
- Each Freedom Team MVP – 3 pts.
- Varsity Team Captain – 3 pts.
- JV Team Captain – 2 pts.
- Freedom Awarded Athletic Awards – 2 pts.
- Freshman Team Captain – 1 pt.
- Each Varsity Letter – 1 pt.
- Each NCS Scholar Athlete Award – 1 pt.
“On behalf of the athletic department, we are proud to have Anna as our female athlete of the year and Darrell Daniels as our male athlete of the year. They have done a tremendous job of representing the Freedom Athletics mission; to maximize potential and have fun. We are going to miss them for their contributions and welcome the times they will come and visit to tell us of their future accolades,” said Amaro.
