Meet Eyre's junior soccer superstar.
A local star in the making, meet Steffanie Goodwin.
We are super proud of Eyre resident and current player of the Northern Wolves Soccer Club (NWSC) Steffanie Goodwin who was selected and is now currently playing for Australia in Germany for the Joeys in a junior World Cup. Steff was the only South Australian to be selected in the women’s team.
Northern Wolves Club President Shane Moxom kindly provided the below biography of Steff's soccer journey:
Steffanie Goodwin started playing football (Soccer) at age 7 in Queensland. She went on to represent her local team being the only girl in the under 8’s.
By age 13 she had played her first senior women's game where she won ‘player of the year award’ at club level and ‘runner up player of the year’ in the competition.
She continued thru U9, 10,11,12’s representing Stanthorpe before being selected for Southwest Queensland Zone team in U11 & 12. Steff was again selected for Southwest Queensland U14 &U16 girls’ teams which won the title at the Gold Coast Cup youth championships.
In 2012 Steff obtained her level 4 Referee certificate and at that time she was the youngest participant to do this in Queensland.
In 2013 she gained her junior coaching licence where she coached U6/7 juniors.
In 2015 Steff was selected in the U16 PlayStation Nation Premier League for SWQ Toowoomba Thunder where she was named co-captain.
Steffanie moved with her family from Qld late 2016 to Kadina before settling in Moonta Bay. There she would travel the 2-hour trip with her dad to Elizabeth for training and game days for her club the Northern Wolves. She is now entering her third year at the club which she has won player of the year twice and been the recipient of the Golden Boot Award twice for the club and third overall in her competition.
At age 17 Steff was selected for the 2018 South Australian U18 School Girls Team to play at the Nationals in Victoria and was appointed team captain.
Steff has played in four Joeys mini World Cups since 2012, and in the 2018 cup she was named in the best 15 players for the Joeys team to tour Germany in 2019. This month while on the tour the Steff will train at Saarbrueeken, Cottbus and Frankfurt/ Order Elite Football schools at the Olympic sports centres under women's Bundesliga coaches from Elversberg including Jens Kiefer who holds the highest coaching qualification in the world.
Whilst in Germany she trialled for a chance to break into the professional arena.
Now back in Oz, Steff will play out the rest of the local soccer season with the Northern Wolves. You can see her play at the last home game on Sunday 25th August at 1pm.
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What an inspiration! We hope Steff’s incredible journey is an inspiration to all, young and old, male or female. It’s a story of talent, drive and determination and we hope her triumphs inspire local kids to get active, join a local sports team and give it a go. Team sport is more than playing. It’s about developing respect, relationships, responsibility but most of all having FUN!
We wish Steff all the best with her endeavours to become a professional soccer player and beyond.