She shoots, and she scores! A soccer scholarship to California State University, San Marcos (CSUSM), that is.
Senior soccer sensation Kayla Knoob is no stranger to attention, whether it’s on the field here at Fountain Valley High School’s (FVHS) soccer field or her club team. So, it truly came to nobody’s surprise that she caught the eye of recruiters from schools such as Cal Poly Pomona and Biola University. Ultimately, she decided to go with the campus that caught her attention: CSUSM.
“It’s close to the beach. [Other] schools [were] too inland for me, and I wanted to be not too far from home, but not too close, and San Marcos was just like in between,” Knoob said.
Since her freshman year, Knoob has been playing for FVHS’ girls’ soccer team.
A monster on the field, she makes dedicated passes and powerful plays, oftentimes pushing her team toward victory.
“I was the person that led by example; I directed people, but I mainly just tried to play my game and hopefully have the energy to bring others up, too,” Knoob said.
Next year will be her second year as varsity captain and her final season at FVHS. She’ll be leaving the FVHS field in pursuit of a larger one, but her sentiments will always lay with her Baron teammates.
“[My favorite memory] would be when my teammate Joey scored an Olympic goal off of a corner and that won the game against Laguna Beach,” Knoob said.
Strong, passionate and dedicated, Knoob has also had her fair share of challenges.
“It’s a lot of fitness and work that you have to put in to be able to last those 80 minutes and to be able to perform the way I want to and that’s what I feel like that’s always a struggle for me. It’s [also] tough sometimes to have a bad game and then just bounce back from that,” Knoob said.
An athlete through and through, Knoob will be majoring in kinesiology and wants to pursue a career related to sports. Some professions in Knoob’s mind include physical therapist, athletic trainer or coach.
And these aforementioned challenges have steered Knoob into the field she wants to go into today. Kinesiology opens opportunities to go into careers such as sports medicine and physical therapy.
“I’m surrounded by injuries and just like how the body works like every single time I play. So I thought [that I was] most comfortable and familiar with [kinesiology],” Knoob said.
Both her family and her faith play a large role in keeping her afloat during these trying times. As a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), Knoob finds comfort in hearing the messages that FCA comes out with every few weeks. She plans to join FCA at CSUSM.
“As a student athlete, you have to obviously balance schoolwork and then balance the game. Athletes have to take care of [whenever there’s] travel days … it’s a lot of time management,” Knoob said.
At CSUSM, Knoob looks forward to meeting the rest of the team and is excited for the experiences she’ll have.
“I really want to be a standout player when I first got there as a freshman, so that’s my main goal — to start off strong and get those [academic] honors,” Knoob said.
Already a supernova on the Baron turf, there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that she’ll continue to shine under the collegiate spotlight at San Marcos.
