Giving her all

Sadie Simon has constructed quite an athletic resume at Coeur d’Alene High School.

She’s been a four-year starter in soccer and a three-year starter and four-year letterman in basketball. She’s played instrumental roles in state championships in both sports and also has two state runner-up finishes in basketball.

Winner is a word that describes her well, but only scratches the surface of who she is.

Whatever you do, just don’t ask her which sport is her favorite. She doesn’t know.

“I love them both so much,” she said.

If Simon has her way, she’ll continue to play both sports in college. And if she really has her way, her college destination would be Brigham Young University-Hawaii.

If her collegiate path must first start closer to home – say North Idaho College – she’d be perfectly content. She’s being recruited in both sports and in some cases both sports by the same school.

She knows a higher calling has a plan for her life.

“I know whatever happens God will be involved,” Simon said. “That gives me comfort. If I continue to work hard I’m sure something will happen.”

The working hard part is a given. And something will work out, too.

Simon knows one speed and that is quick. If she has a second speed it’s quicker.

She uses the speed to her advantage as a forward in soccer and the same speed gives her another measure of advantage on the basketball floor.

“The two sports certainly complement each other well,” Simon said. “All the running we do in both keeps me in shape year-round. The footwork on the soccer field helps my defense in basketball.”

While she’s a scoring machine in soccer, her strength in basketball is lock-down defense. She’s hoping to emerge as more of a scoring threat this year.

“I’ve really worked hard on my 3-point shot,” she said.

In soccer, she’s having one of her most prolific scoring years. Going into the week, she had a team-leading 19 goals to go with four assists. She had three hat tricks in the first five matches.

“My teammates have been setting me up well,” Simon said. “They’ve given me so many good through balls. From the midfielders to the forwards, we’ve really worked well together. I’ve never had better passes from my teammates than this year.”

Although her coach didn’t verify her career statistics by the deadline for this story, Simon is believed to rank second all-time in scoring at CdA. Only Janee Andre, a four-year standout in the late 1990s, has scored more than Simon (97 goals, 78 assists).

If Simon had her druthers, though, she would lead the team in assists.

“Everybody likes to score goals, but I like to involve all my teammates,” Simon said.

As prolific of a scorer that she is, Simon isn’t the player chosen to do penalty kicks.

“I’ve never done a penalty kick on my high school team,” she said. “I think it’s because I over think things. I always play better when I have fun instead of overthinking.”

Simon was the Inland Empire League’s newcomer of the year as a freshman, a first team all-league pick as a sophomore and the offensive player of the year last season. She’s a candidate for player of the year this fall.

Her best assets on the soccer field are her best assets on the basketball court, too, Viks basketball coach Dale Poffenroth said.

“She’s definitely our best defensive player, and it’s because of her quickness not necessarily her speed,” Poffenroth said. “It’s a soccer thing. She really needs to play defense for us. She takes that on as our defensive stopper. She guards the guard who is the biggest threat. It may not always be the team’s best scorer, but the one that poses the biggest threat to us.”

Simon thinks CdA can win a second state title in three years in soccer and repeat in basketball.

“In soccer, we’re strong everywhere on the field and on the bench,” Simon said. “We’re equally as good as or better than when we won two years ago. We just need to play every game like it’s our last.”

What about basketball?

“We have practically everybody back,” Simon said. “We’re really strong and a lot of our players really developed over the summer.”

Whatever happens there’s something her coaches can count on.

“I just give my all in everything I do,” she said. “I don’t want to have any regrets.”