Student-Athlete Spotlight: Chace Miguel

In this week’s Student- Athlete Spotlight, we recognize, Chace Miguel from Hartnell College Women’s Soccer team, in her second year of college. She grew up in Hollister, CA and attended San Benito High School. There, she played varsity soccer all four years. Before Hartnell, she attended Gavilan College, but her passion for soccer led her to transfer here. “My motivation to play soccer would have to be the passion I have for the sport. I also really enjoy the relationships that I make with my teammates and the coaches,” explained Chace. Miguel is currently majoring in Communication Studies, “I chose to study communication because it is a broad subject that I can go any direction career wise.” When asked about her long term goal in soccer she explained, “My long-term goal is to transfer and play soccer at a 4-year university that’s close to home and hopefully coach her future kids in the sport; fingers crossed.” As a captain of the team, she is portrayed to be a team player and a leader on the field. “I am hardworking and persistent and I try to keep the same intensity throughout the page 7 whole game so that my teammates are motivated to keep going even when they are exhausted,” she said. Not only does Chase attend her classes, goes to practice, spends time studying, she also works a part-time job at Mars Hill Coffeehouse in Hollister. Altogether, she spends around 8-9 hours a day at school, at practice, and then doing homework. “Balancing all of that with work can be tough but it is definitely worth it,” she assured. Her family is her major supporter as well as her friends. They attend most of her games possible and travel the distance just to be there for her. However, her best friend Greg is another member if her biggest supporters, always there for her. After last week’s loss, Chace reminisced on how the team could improve, “In our game against Clovis, I think we played well as a team. Personally, I need to work on finishing all my shots because that is what my team is depending on. As a team, all we need to work on is keeping our intensity up throughout the whole game and we would have come out with a Win that game.” The coaching staff is a very important aspect of a student-athlete's life, “Our coaching staff makes sure that we are all on top of our academics and expect us to dedicate 3 hours a week minimum in the Panther Learning Lab and if we don't, we get playing time taken away. It really motivates us to keep our grades up!” stated Chase. Her biggest inspiration to be better is her younger brother Brady, “He is similar to myself in a lot of ways, we share the mental aspect of sports, the way he goes about his life, and his attitude with basically everything. He inspires me to be a good role-model and someone he can look up to as a person and an athlete.” Here at Hartnell we are proud of all our student-athletes; they are hard-working and motivated to succeed in both education and sports. We wish Chace and the team the best!