Neuqua Valley junior defender Addison Guskey wasn’t exactly born to play soccer, although it isn’t a stretch to say she’s a natural.
She began playing shortly after her family moved from Chicago to Naperville, and her younger sister Aubrey followed suit two years later.
“Neither of our parents played soccer,” Addison Guskey said. “It wasn’t a big thing when they were little. When we moved out here, soccer was one of the first things offered, so they said, ‘Well, this seems like a cool thing to put kids in.’”
The Guskey sisters first played in the Lil Kickers program and progressed to the Naperville Park District leagues and later the Galaxy club program.
This season, they’re teammates for the first time. Addison Guskey, a three-year starter who has committed to play at Northeastern, is a co-captain for the Wildcats (7-3), and Aubrey Guskey is a freshman forward who leads them in scoring.
“It’s really nice,” Aubrey Guskey said. “We play for the same club, but we are on separate teams, so we finally get to have that sister-to-sister connection.
“She’s really good defensively and attacking, which is really fun because when I play up top, we can read each other.”
It didn’t take long for Neuqua Valley to take advantage of the family connection. Aubrey Guskey scored four goals in the Wildcats’ season-opening 6-0 win over Plainfield Central, and Addison Guskey got the assist on the first strike.
“I was playing on the left side of the defense,” Addison Guskey said. “The ball was in the midfield, and then it came out left, and I drove it up the line.
“I played the ball kind of curving in toward her. After I played it, I kind of held my breath a little bit, and I saw she went for it. She came across, met the ball, took a touch and scored. It was so cool.”
Aubrey Guskey has eight goals and 10 assists, leading the team in both categories. Addison Guskey is second on the team with five goals, including her first career hat trick in the Wildcats’ 4-2 DuPage Valley Conference win against Metea Valley on April 21. It was Neuqua Valley’s first win against Metea Valley since 2019.
On Friday, Addison Guskey tallied the first goal and Aubrey Guskey notched two assists as the visiting Wildcats rolled past East Aurora 8-1 in a nonconference game.
Afterward, Neuqua Valley coach Arnoldo Gonzalez spoke about Addison Guskey’s ever-increasing role.
“It’s a very big role,” said Gonzalez, who is a Spanish teacher. “She’s a captain in voice and action. I’ve been lucky enough to have her in class, as well, so as I tell them, the field is a classroom without walls, and I know the way she is in the classroom.”
Addison Guskey’s academic record is just as impressive as her soccer achievements. A straight-A student with a weighted 4.6 GPA, she is a member of the Student Council and Spanish honor society.
“I’m also an executive board member of our Interact club, which is our community service club,” she said. “So I do a lot of work there connecting with the different communities.”
Addison Guskey makes sure to get her work in even when she has downtime.
“For example, in that game against Naperville Central right after we came back from spring break, people were dropping like flies,” Gonzalez said. “She wasn’t one of them because she knows, ‘OK, I’m on vacation, but I need to continue to work because we’ve got a game coming up.’
“Players like that don’t need me to tell them what to do. That’s just the type of person that she is. Her work ethic is second to none. She’s just got a great head on her shoulders.”
Soccer wasn’t the only thing Addison Guskey thought about when she chose to commit to Northeastern.
“Boston is a great city, No. 1,” she said, “and I think I want to go into engineering, and they have a great engineering program. Their engineering co-op program is unmatched, so being able to explore opportunities to see what it would be like as a career is really cool.”
As is playing with her sister. Aubrey Guskey is making a name for herself as one of the top freshmen in the area.
“She’s been a big piece for us in the attacking, being able to take players on,” Addison Guskey said. “If she’s not beating people and then scoring, she’s beating people and finding the open man in the spaces behind and creating opportunities for others.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
