University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Playing to Survive
10/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
By: Kevin Wheeler
kaw154@pitt.edu
Heading to college after high school is a brand new experience that comes with a long list of obstacles.
Among the numerous clichés that seem to persist for freshmen entering college life are phrases along the lines of “aim high” or “you can do whatever you set your mind to.” Because they’re used so often, a lot of young adults let that advice roll off their shoulders. But then there are some who take it to heart.
That’s Jarena Harmon.
There was never a challenge that the Pitt freshman didn’t take head on.
“I try and set goals that are almost too high to reach,” Harmon said. “You never actually hit them, but the challenge is what makes me keep striving. A lot of people when they fail at something, they get down on themselves. I’m the kind of person that says, ‘Next time, I’ve gotta do something about that.’”
It’s Harmon’s positivity that keeps her going. The same hurdles that make others turn and run are the ones that Harmon has the most fun trying to leap over.
She was always active. Her parents made sure of it. When Harmon was eight years old her father brought her to her older brother’s soccer practices so she could begin to learn the game. On top of that, she took karate and boxing classes – a form of release that Harmon took a liking to. All of those things kept her busy, and she participated because they were enjoyable for her. So when a U-15 soccer coach told Harmon that she had the makings of a good player, it came as a surprise to her. She had been more concerned with having fun playing the game than anything else.
With this new praise in mind, Harmon slowly moved away from self-defense and chose to play club soccer with the McLean Youth Soccer Association. As time went on, soccer quickly surfaced as the sport she loved to play above all others.
“It’s the most intelligent sport in the world,” Harmon said. “There’s a huge mental aspect, and I really like that. It’s a game that reflects upon a team’s mental strength as well as their physical. It’s hard to put every piece together, and that’s what makes it challenging. The challenge is what makes it fun.”
When Harmon arrived at St. Andrews Episcopal School, the school’s women’s athletic programs were lacking. The women’s soccer team had 16 players, most of them only playing to earn their sports credit for graduation. But Harmon didn’t complain. To her, it was just another opportunity.
“A lot of people would’ve looked at it negatively,” she said. “My dad told me to use it as a chance to better myself. After that I had it in my mind that this was my time; this is my chance to practice this part of my game that I don’t normally get to use [in club play]. Just do my community service; share my love of soccer.”
Harmon did just that. She took advantage of her time at St. Andrews to hone her skills and translate them to her club play, which ultimately helped her become a sought after player for top schools around the country. By her junior year, Harmon earned the role of team captain.
“As captain I really got a chance to look at the development of players, which really helped me in return,” she said. “Watching people make mistakes and realizing that it was necessary to look at my own helped me. I learned a lot about myself as a player”
It took Harmon up until the start of her senior season before she knew she had a real shot to play collegiate soccer. With current Pitt and former McLean club teammate Clare Beahn and Pitt head coach Greg Miller insisting the she consider taking her talents to the University of Pittsburgh, Harmon was at a crossroads. She had just barely decided that she wanted to play Division I college soccer, and now that it was time to pick a school, she wasn’t sure where to turn.
Harmon’s high school coach provided some guidance, telling her to “go to a place that reminds you of where you love to play.”
Pitt was it.
“I wanted to join a school that’s somewhat similar to my high school,” Harmon said. “Not too big and the soccer program isn’t at the top all of the time. Pitt is a program that needs to be built and I think that’s what makes it fun and interesting. To enter into a program that’s already trying to build itself and not maintain itself, that’s when I realized that I wanted to play here.”
Harmon arrived on the Oakland campus for Pitt’s training camp in August aware of the fact that there would be a learning curve and skeptical as to how much she would play in her first season. It was nothing like club ball. It required more fitness, strength training, and harder practice play. What Harmon, like most freshman players, wasn’t used to was Coach Miller’s demand for a high soccer IQ. Miller expected his young players to have advanced field awareness and the knowledge to play as fast as possible without hesitation.
Even though Harmon admits she’s still working on those aspects of her game, she has the rest of us fooled. Sixteen games into her freshman season, Harmon leads the Panthers in goals (seven), points (15) and game-winning goals (three). Three of those seven goals came against Robert Morris (Aug. 23) in the second collegiate match of her career, just the ninth hat trick in program history. In addition, Harmon’s goal against North Carolina State helped lift Pitt to their first home ACC win since joining the conference in 2013. In veteran fashion, Harmon credits her older teammates, namely senior Roosa Arvas and junior Siobhan McDonough, for being more than willing to help her become acclimated to the collegiate game much quicker.
Harmon’s preseason aspirations for 15 goals may be unattainable now, but her gritty play on the attack is uncanny. While she openly admits to not being the fastest or most technical player on the pitch, she owes her early success to a unique mentality.
“Playing to survive,” Harmon said. “Surviving would be winning the game. Scoring is basically all I really look forward to. I want my team to win. I love that feeling of winning and being able to say, ‘our squad is the best.’”
Pitt has had the pleasure of experiencing that feeling on ten occasions in 2015, a total that ties the number of wins from the past two seasons combined and is the most wins in a single season in program history. Jarena Harmon has been a catalyst for that success, but she believes her team has a lot more to prove not only this season, but in the years to come.
“I think we can build up and continue to grow as a team if everyone individually does their part to help the team grow,” she said. “This is just the beginning; we’re only scratching the surface. We just have to find out what we’re really about.”
With only two games guaranteed left to play this season, among Harmon’s long list of objectives is an important team goal.
“We’re concerned about making a name for ourselves,” she said. “Letting teams know that Pitt is here and we’re a new squad, nothing is going to mess with us. We want to win. Our expectation is to make it to the tournament, and we haven’t hit that yet but we will.”
As for scoring 15 goals this season? Well, even if she reached that goal, she’d just create another one for herself.
“I’d probably just say, ‘Let’s add five more.’”
