Daily Journal Girls’ Soccer Player of the Year: Sequoia’s Addi Haws

But keeping to her mantra of wanting to help her team and have fun, Haws always seemed to come up with the big goal or the big assist when the Ravens needed it the most. Not only did Haws help Sequoia to its best-ever finish in the PAL Bay Division, second place, her play in the postseason helped the Ravens to their first-ever Central Coast Section championship — earning Haws the San Mateo Daily Journal Girls’ Soccer Player of the Year honor.

“I don’t think [striker] was the spot. I didn’t get the ball much. It was just weird. … I’m glad we figured out that wasn’t the best move,” Haws said. “[Playing wing] is definitely way different than center mid. But I had played wing before. … For the most part, the transition was pretty good. It all worked out.”

Midway through the season, the Ravens faced a dilemma. Emily Christman, a starting center forward, went down for the rest of the season with an injury. Head coach Melissa Schmidt had a decision to make and made it by moving Haws to the striker position.

It’s hard enough to make a position change in the middle of the season. It’s even harder when that first move doesn’t work out.

“We tried moving Addi to striker and that didn’t work. She wants to drop in way too much and she wouldn’t hold high,” Schmidt said. “After that game, she said, ‘I learned I’m not a striker.’ (I said),’ That’s good, because I learned that too.’”

But instead of moving Haws back to her strength in the midfield, Schmidt decided to move Haws out to the wing and like Goldilocks finding Baby Bear’s food and bed to her liking, Haws found out the wing was just right.

Haws would go on to finish the season with 14 goals and six assists and earn Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division co-Midfielder of the Year.

“She makes an impact all over the field,” Schmidt said. “She’s a varied threat.”

Turns out, Haws took the skills used in the midfield and took them out to the wing. As an attacking center midfielder, not only is Haws tasked with distributing the ball, but also putting it in the back of the net. And while the angles from the wing may be different than what she experienced in the middle of the field, the bottom line was scoring — and Haws did that when the stakes were the highest.

Haws missed the CCS opener, a 2-1 Ravens win over Westmont, because of a training opportunity with the Women’s National Soccer League club Kansas City Current. Haws returned for the semifinal match against Los Gatos. After seeing a number of scoring opportunities go by the board, Haws took over in the first of two, 10-minute overtime periods. Five minutes into OT, Haws potted the game winner on a brilliant individual sequence.

In the CCS Division I championship game against Aragon, Haws turned distributor once again, as her curving pass to the front of the goal set up Nina Mills’ game-winning score late in the first half of a 1-0 Ravens victory for the program’s first section title.

“She just raises the level,” Schmidt said. “In that overtime game (against) Los Gatos, I was going to pull her over and tell her, ‘Get it done. Be selfish.’ She doesn’t want to be the prima donna, but sometimes you want her to be that.”

And Haws’ heroics weren’t done yet. With the CCS title came a spot in the Northern California Division III regional tournament and Haws, again, came up with the magic. The top-seeded Ravens hosted No. 8 Piedmont in a first-round match, and for the second time in the playoffs, Sequoia found itself in overtime following a 1-1 tie after 80 minutes of regulation.

Cue Haws. Seeing how much of the action was in the middle of the field, Haws had pinched in from her wing position and was in the right spot at the right time. Megan McCormack played a ball over the top of the Piedmont defense, which Haws beat and then poked a shot between the goalkeeper’s legs for the golden-goal, sudden-win, 2-1 victory.

And while the Ravens came up short in the Nor Cal semifinals, a 2-1 loss to Cardinal Newman, Haws, once again, had a foot in the Ravens’ goal, setting up Mills again for Sequoia’s strike.

“Right place, right time sort of things,” Haws said.

But it was Haws’ calm after the game that proved how much she meant to the team. After Schmidt gave her postgame assessment after the season-ending loss, Haws, who was one of two team co-captains, stood up and told her teammates they had nothing to be ashamed of, rattling off all the goals the Ravens had accomplished this season.

That struck a chord with Schmidt.

“I thought that was incredible,” Schmidt said. “That was perfection. It was so needed. Me saying it wasn’t going to do anything. [The team] needed to hear it from their leader.

“I think what I’m super proud of her for this year was that she took on the role as a leader. … From a leadership position, that’s where I was blown away.”

Schmidt knew Haws had the soccer skills to be an elite player. Schmidt said she knew it after Haws’ first touch her freshman year at tryouts. The next step was to turn her into a captain and leader.

“I’m not at all surprised she has turned into the player she is,” Schmidt said. “I heard a little bit about her (coming into Sequoia), but as soon as I saw her touch the ball, I was like, ‘OK.’”

It was Haws’ freshman year in 2021 that saw Sequoia qualify for its first-ever CCS title game, a 1-0 loss to Lincoln. At that time, Schmidt told a team full of freshmen and sophomores that they would be back during their careers at Sequoia.

For the last two years, Haws’ goal has been to not only get back to the CCS finals, but to win a CCS title.

“Winning CCS was super big, not only for me, but also for the school. I was actually speechless. I had a smile on my face for like the next week,” Haws said. “The team 100% deserved it. I’m just so proud of what we accomplished.”

Added Schmidt: “She’s so dedicated to our program and I think she’s just a champion. I think she is just a kid who wants to go out and do her best every day.”