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Cottonwood Heights Journal

Brighton’s girls soccer thrives on community service and love of the sport

Sep 03, 2022 12:29PM ● By Jerry Christensen

By Jerry Christensen | [email protected]

The storied Brighton High girls soccer program has a tradition of excellence both on the field and off the field as they give back to the community. “We love to be a part of the CH community! And love to have fans join us at our games,” said coach Sara Cowley.

The program has three decades of deep roots in Cottonwood Heights and Sandy. Young girls prepare on seasonal teams and then on offseason clubs to become part of the high-profile high school program. Every year, the varsity, JV and sophomore teams reach out to junior leagues and host a celebration of soccer.

“We do a youth clinic every year in our new state-of-the-art field house,” Cowley said. “We love having the youth of Cottonwood Heights come meet the team and learn soccer skills—we do it every preseason.”

The results of this cross pollination are evident in the depth charts that keep Brighton soccer strong and competitive.  In fact, the seven seniors of this year’s soccer team were recipients of the mentorship by those in the state championship teams of 2010 and 2013. In old-school Brighton parlance, the team has come “full circle.”

Living up to the legacy, however, has become increasingly difficult as all the school teams on Salt Lake’s east bench have risen to Brighton’s level. Region 6 alone (East, Highland, Murray, Skyline, Olympus, Park City) has produced the state champion in the last three seasons. Brighton is always in the mix. 

This season’s team captains Marcie Terry and Sammy Fry with McKenzie Smith in goal provide solid leadership to a cast of young talent including sophomores Paige Christensen, Bailey Brown, Sara Jane Mikell, Jane Allen and the freshmen-phenom pair of Oakley Zenger and Kate Wood. 

While Cowley is aware of the stiff regional competition waiting at the state level in October, there is wealth of young players pulling for the Brighton girls and waiting to take their place.