Sarah Howard is making a name for herself as a sophomore on the Sacramento State women’s soccer team. Her excellent play in the midfield helped last year’s team finish well above outside expectations. She has also had a hand in this season’s strong start, recording an assist and playing well in the middle for the Hornets. But if it were up to her, she would blend in entirely.

Howard shuns personal accolades as she says, “My teammates make me good. It’s all about the team.” She calls the goal she scored in last season’s 2-1 loss to Northern Arizona in the Big Sky Conference tournament “the most amazing thing ever.” And yet she hates the fact that she was the lone member from Sac State on the all-tournament team. “I think they just gave it to me because I scored,” she said.

She doesn’t really see herself as an emerging leader on a team chock full of freshmen, regardless of the fact that her teammates do. “She never gives up and she always gets the ball,” fellow sophomore Missy Matzen said.

Despite her modesty, Howard’s ever-present grin tells a story that is worth telling. And this time, it is all about her.

Howard, a native of Chino, CA, grew up as the middle child ?” sort of. She was technically the second child born out of three, but the third came just one minute later in the form of her twin brother Patrick. To ask Sarah one would think that she has 10 years on her “little” brother.

All kidding between the two aside, Sarah and Patrick are the best of friends.

“We were always playmates,” Howard recalls. They were always doing something when they were growing up. “Our parents put us into sports to make sure we were always busy.”

Sarah found soccer when she was five years old. She began to play competitively at age 12 and found through the years that soccer was indeed her passion. She played other sports such as softball and basketball, but in high school when she was forced to choose she chose soccer.

Patrick doesn’t shy away from admitting his sister’s more impressive athletic resume.

“She always beat the boys,” he said of his sister’s early playing days. “We are a very competitive family,” Patrick said. “And her being better than me at sports made things worse.”

The infinite wisdom Sarah has accrued in her extra minute of life gets hung over Patrick’s head all the time as well.

“Whenever we were in a situation where the oldest got first dibs she always said that she was older,” Patrick said. “But it’s only one minute!”

Sarah remembers that it was she who learned to walk first and that she “was sprinting while he was still crawling.” Patrick admits this, but he exacted a bit of revenge later.

“I lost my first tooth before she did, so she went in the bathroom that night and ripped a tooth out that was not even loose,” he said. “Just because she had to be equal.”

With Sarah’s teammates, as well as with her brother, it is her goofiness that rules the day. Before games or during practice there she is cracking people up, keeping them loose, or sometimes even busting a move.

“I can’t dance, but I like it,” she says proudly behind her beaming smile.

“When people are freaking out, Sarah is a calming influence,” Matzen said. “She definitely keeps everybody loose.”

If what Howard’s teammates say is true, don’t approach her when she’s quiet.

“When she’s quiet it’s trouble,” said sophomore defender and roommate Kara Taylor. Howard concedes this point.

“When things aren’t going my way I get really quiet and frustrated,” Howard said. “I’m trying to work on it.”

Luckily, for those around her it seems that Howard is hardly ever quiet. As for the team that Howard loves so much, well, there’s nowhere else she would rather be. “I love this team because we play for each other,” she said. “I can’t imagine playing anywhere else.”

The team’s ultimate goal of a conference title weighs heavily on Howard’s mind. For that to become a reality, her teammates hope that she just keeps on dancing.

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Benn Hodapp can be reached at [email protected]