Peninsula grad Campigotto staying prepared for Saint Martin’s soccer season

Since she was four years old, Ali Campigotto loved playing sports. Whether it was softball or soccer, she was playing.

Now in her sophomore year at Saint Martin’s University in Lacey, Wash., she has solidified her passion in soccer as the goalkeeper for the women’s soccer team.

Although her family isn’t surprised now, they didn’t peg Campigotto as a soccer player early on.

“I always grew up playing softball… I tried out soccer and my parents didn’t think that I would like it because it involved a lot of running,” she said. “I just took to [soccer]. I think maybe because it was more fast paced and something’s happening all the time. My parents joke about [how I’m the goalkeeper] now, too.”

Before finding her way onto a college soccer program, Campigotto played for both Peninsula High School and Washington Premier Football Club in Puyallup.

Her club team’s coach happened to be Rob Walker, currently the head coach for the men’s soccer program at St. Martin’s. Because of this connection, Walker convinced Campigotto that SMU would be the ideal fit for her after high school.

“[Coach Walker] was the previous women’s soccer coach here and there was some communication between my coach now and him,” Campigotto said. “So I went on a visit, I just loved the campus and it seemed like a place I really wanted to be.”

As a goalkeeper, Campigotto plays a position that she feels is the most unique on the pitch.

Because every shot on goal is different, Campigotto has a wide variety of different things she must account for, including the angle the ball is coming in at and how close the opposing player is.

One thing she can’t account for is what type of game will come her way. Sometimes, it’s a constant barrage of shots flying her way. In others, there’s not much action.

“I remember back in club, my teammates would joke about if it was maybe a tough game where I was getting a lot of shots or maybe a slow game, they’d say ‘it’s just like a Netflix show’,” Campigotto said. “‘It’s 45 minutes, you can make it through!’”

There have been practices and scrimmages where Campigotto got the better of her teammates, and gently reminded them of that fact. However, she wasn’t immune to it, as her teammates would joke back if they got shots past her.

“I like to develop a good relationship with definitely my defenders and also I room with two forwards. So I think that’s kind of funny,” she said. “I bicker with them because they like to score on me, but I like to save their shots. It goes back and forth… Anytime they hit a ball over my head and make it in, they just love to rub it in.”

Coming out of Peninsula, Campigotto had a well-decorated high school career earning several all-conference awards and being a team captain for the Seahawks. But with that level of experience, she was still taken aback with the pace of play in the college game.

But it didn’t take long for Campigotto to adjust.

“The first practices were like ‘Whoa, this is fast’, and then maybe the first ten minutes of our game [was too], “ she said. “After that, I was able to settle in… One of our captains said last year, that really stuck with me, was that everyone is here for a reason and we all were high school captains. So we were all on the same level at this point.”

In her first year, Campigotto was able to secure some playing time as the coaching staff mixed in their keepers over the season. She finished with 64 saves on the year, good enough for fourth in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

Although the season didn’t go the way the Saints wanted it to go, having a full season’s worth of experience would have gone a long way for her sophomore year.

Like many athletes that are in college or high school in Washington, Campigotto and her teammates have not had many opportunities to play any organized games against other opponents.

“We first started off in pods where it was small groups, it was kind of limited in what we could do because we didn’t have the full team setting,” she said. “It kind of made me [realize I] took for granted what we had last year. I really miss just going to practice… In the fall, I would have given anything to go to a regular practice.”

With SMU located in Thurston County, the Saints have been able to move into full team practices sooner than schools in Pierce or King County.

However long it may take to play real games, Campigotto and her teammates are taking advantage of the extra time that they have to develop into a stronger unit.

“What our coach has emphasized is looking at the silver lining of this all,” she said. “Instead of getting one week of practice or a week and a half, we actually get months. And so we get to develop better relationships with each other than we would if we were jumping right into the season.”

Campigotto and the Saints are still awaiting when a finalized GNAC schedule will be published. Until then, they will continue their scrimmaging and practices as safely as they can.