By Jose Trujillo — Video Editor
While Sagittarius’ are the one of the last to arrive in the calendar year, they are usually first to lead.
“My teammates always tell me I’m a great leader,” said senior goalkeeper and fellow Sagittarius Paige Simoneau. “They look up to me in general, so I think that shows my leadership in a sense.”
Leadership is a strong Sagittarius trait. They naturally gravitate to that role and it was no different for the star goalkeeper.
“It was more natural,” Simoneau said about leadership. “Obviously some aspects of it I had to work on, but the majority of it came naturally.”
She also is not intimidated by a new challenge. In the 2015 Mountain West Tournament, Simoneau was called off the bench to handle penalty kick duties.
This happened not once but twice — and as a freshman. She came up clutch both times and earned her first tournament MVP award.
“I like taking on new things, whether it’s a role or just trying something new,” Simoneau said. “I think learning comes from challenges because you figure what works and what didn’t worked.”
Being open for a challenge is key for any athlete that hopes to be successful. Players and teams will eventually have to overcome adversity — just like coming off the bench in a high pressure situation as a freshman.
That relies on embracing the challenge, which starts an athlete’s mentality.
“She was about nine and playing with 10, 11 year old boys,” said Paige’s mother Kelly Simoneau. “She was holding her own.”
One could argue that for an athlete, there really isn’t a better zodiac sign to ask for. Just looking at the Sagittarius symbol will give you an idea of the physical and personal traits they possess.
The symbol consists of a half man-half horse aiming a bow and arrow.
The horse represents strength, while the human evokes human intelligence. The bow and arrow represent overcoming challenges. When a Sagittarius is pulled back, they don’t give up — they expect to move forward.
Maybe some of that Sagittarius magic has spread to the entire women’s soccer program.
Since Simoneau became a Spartan four seasons ago, the program has moved nowhere but forward. SJSU has held the Mountain West Tournament crown twice, in 2015 and 2018, and once as regular season champions in 2017.
The Riverside, Calif. native owns two tournament MVP awards and has compiled a 23-15-10 career record with 21 shutouts.
She set a new single-season school record with 11 shutouts in 2018 — eight of those coming in Mountain West play, which is the most in conference history.
But Simoneau understands she can’t do it without her teammates. She credits them for having the trust in her to lead anyway possible.
“The team trusted in me, and I trusted in the team,” Simoneau said. “Whether that was giving them advice or giving them a speech, just trusting each other and trusting that they believed what I said could help change the game to help better our team so we can win.”
The trust shared by Simoneau and her teammates may have also came at a small price.
Sagittarius’ are known to be brutally honest. Simoneau agrees with this, though she hopes others understand she doesn’t do it in spite.
“My friends know that I’m really straight up,” Simoneau said. “I don’t sugarcoat things. If you ask me for advice, I’m going to tell you how I see it. The best thing to do is to be honest, even if it that may hurt them or make them angry.”
Simoneau may have at times left people with a bitter taste in their mouth, but she was just being honest. Though one thing is for certain, the Sagittarius goalie definitely left an impact at SJSU.
As a mother will, Kelly is a bit more concerned with the overall college experience her daughter leaves with.
And that is to be surrounded by different people, environments and situations whether on the field, in the classroom or just in life.
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