Charlotte Callicott accounted for 80 percent of Zama's goals en route to a 21-3-3 record and the second Far East Division II Tournament title in school history. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Corner kicks weren’t just set pieces for Charlotte Callicott and Zama’s girls soccer team. Every one was a scoring opportunity.
“I would just try to place the ball in front of the net and hope for the best, hoping somebody would put it in,” the senior midfielder said. “Hope somebody would be in front to play it off their head or chest. Right after spring break, we got better at it as April moved on.”
And the Trojans did get better. A lot better.
After sharing the top spot with Nile C. Kinnick in the season-opening Panther Cup at Yokota — Callicott’s birthplace — the Trojans went on to a 21-3-3 season record and won the second Far East Division II Tournament title in school history.
And sure enough, the only goal in the Trojans’ 1-0 win April 29 over Christian Academy Japan in the D-II final came off a corner, with Callicott sending the ball to teammate Mikayla Ramon, who headed it in.
“I was really hoping we would win, that nobody would get hurt and everybody would play as hard as we could,” Callicott said. “I really didn’t want to lose. The whole team stepped up and played really hard.”
Leading the way through that championship campaign, Callicott — whose teammates call her “Lotte” — scored 32 goals, second-most in DODEA-Pacific, and counting assists she accounted for 80 percent of the Trojans’ goals, coach Jill Smith said.
“The girls really looked up to her,” Smith said, adding that Callicott could see the entire field in a way college players might do. “She was the big-picture girl. She could predict where things were going to happen, what needed to happen. A lot of players don’t have that yet.”
For all that, Callicott has been named Stars and Stripes’ Pacific high school girls soccer Athlete of the Year. She nosed out Kayden Hammac, a junior who netted 27 goals and nine assists for two-time defending Far East Division I champion Kubasaki.
“Her leadership, her skills, the ability to include the whole team all the time,” Smith said. “Make sure the whole is involved as a leader. Her leadership and teamsmanship that she shared with the whole team.”
Callicott has been on the pitch since she was 4, played club ball in Hawaii for two years before arriving at Zama, club ball in Maryland and for the Okinawa Diplomats’ U-12 and U-15 teams — one of two girls on the U-12 side.
She blended in well with the Trojans off the bat, Callicott said; some of her future teammates reached out soon after she arrived, in particular sisters Bella and Jessie Hunter. Soon, they were on the pitch doing conditioning before the start of the season.
Once the season began, Zama scored an historic victory over a Kanto Plain rival, blanking American School In Japan 2-0, the first win over the Mustangs in the Far East tournament era that began in 2010.
“We all stepped up and played super well, played as a team in that game,” Callicott said. “Everybody was really, really excited. Nobody thought we were going to win that game.”
Having come from a warm environment such as Hawaii, the chilly, rainy atmosphere of the D-II final forced Callicott to adjust her tactics, along with playing on turf at Yokota’s Bonk Field, instead of on grass.
“The ball always moves faster on turf and with the rain it goes even faster,” she said. “I was making sure my passes were on the ground and not in the air, it would have been harder for my teammates to trap.”
Following the corner-kick goal by Roman just seven minutes into the second half, the Trojans needed to work hard to keep the lead, Callicott said. “It was scary. I was trying to kick it out and waste as much time as possible so we wouldn’t have to keep the ball in play.”
If there’s anything that Callicott says she wants to be remembered for, “I always played hard and I didn’t give up,” she said. “I always gave it my best, every game.”
Age — 18.
Place of birth — Yokota Air Base, Japan.
Favorite school subject — English.
Least favorite school subject — Science.
Favorite athletes — Lindsey Heaps (U.S. women’s soccer team player).
Favorite forms of entertainment — Reading, watching movies, baking brownies, cakes, cupcakes, cookies.
