SPORTS
From Small Beginnings Come Big Accomplishments
F
or women’s soccer standout Brandi Peltier, Ripon College is a perfect fit. A native of Neosho, Wis., population 600, Peltier played for Hustisford High School, the smallest high school in Wisconsin to sponsor women’s soccer. Peltier, only a sophomore, already has scored 45 career goals and is on pace to smash the College record of 62, held by Tami Mertins Maier ’98. She holds two of Ripon’s top three single-season scoring records. In her first year, she netted 25 goals and ranked fourth among all NCAA Division-III players. She ended the fall 2012 season with 20 goals,
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putting her at number 24 in the NCAA Division-III rankings for the year. Setting yet another College record, six of Peltier’s 20 goals in 2012 came during one game. “It’s still a shock to me every time I see my name in the record book,” Peltier says. “Those accomplishments are great honors, but I never could have scored as many goals as I have without the players around me.” So, how did such an immensely talented player arrive at a soccer program that had experienced 13 consecutive losing seasons prior to her arrival and had never qualified for a conference tournament?
Enter Lady Luck, along with the persistence of a first-year head coach. “Schools such as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and UWParkside were planning on attending one of her games to scout her in person, but the weekend they were supposed to see her for the first time, the game got rained out,” explains Ripon College Women’s Soccer Coach Sam Schroeder. “That gave me an opportunity to recruit her because of my close connection with her high school coach and the fact that I went to about 10 of her games during her senior year.” That persistence paid off as Peltier, a four-time conference player of the year in high school, became Schroeder’s first recruit and has gone on to lay a foundation for the program as its most dynamic player in nearly two decades. Peltier’s presence was felt from the very beginning. In her first year with the team, the forensic psychology major assisted the Red Hawks to seven wins, as many victories as the team’s two previous years combined. In 2012, the Red Hawks took another step, going 10-6-2, marking Ripon’s first winning season since 1997. “It’s a great honor to be a part of the resurgence of the Ripon women’s soccer program,” Peltier says. “Playing a role in the program’s turnaround and helping the team improve and climb toward the top has been a special experience and something I’d rather be a part of, as opposed to going to a school that