by Hayden Wysup
The Washington State Cougars women's soccer program under Coach Shulenberger has been no stranger to recruiting high-level talent, and there is no exception to this year's freshman class. Two of these freshmen are highly coveted prospects Naomi Clark and Reagan Kotschau. However, these two did not first cross paths here at Wazzu.
These two have known each other since they were eight years old and have been creating a name for themselves in Colorado soccer since. Both led their respective high schools to 5A state championships – Reagan in 2020 and Naomi in 2022, when the two schools went against each other. However, Naomi would get the best of Reagan's team as her hat-trick performance led her team to win the state championship.
Naomi and Reagan also played on the same ECNL club team, Real Colorado. On this team they played against some of the best high school competition in the world. Naomi described the experience as, "ECNL is all of the best players in the country and all these players go to colleges we play, so I feel it's good preparation." The high-level competition these two experienced certainly has prepared them for college soccer, and as the Cougs enter Pac-12 play, Reagan said Cougs fans, "should expect us to come out every game wanting to win - expect us to put up a fight no matter what."
However, Reagan and Naomi's story would continue to cross paths as they both landed at Washington State as a part of this year's freshman class. Both spoke very highly of this program when they took their visits. Reagan said, "I took my visit here, and I loved the coaches. I loved what they had to say. Especially since they were looking for people in my position, in the midfield, it was just a perfect fit."
Naomi said, "I took my official visit here and I fell in love with the college town, the people, and the coaches especially."
They both spoke very highly of the coaching staff here at Washington State, Naomi said this about the coaches, "The way they set it up this year, it gave us a huge opportunity to show our talents. The coaches also came up to us and said, 'You guys can steal anyone's position if you work hard enough.'"
Reagan also mentioned that assistant coach Matt Kagan has really helped with her transition to this next level of athletics. "He's really helped me feel comfortable here, he always reaches out as an outlet if we need to talk about anything."
Naomi added, "He continuously sends us texts just letting us know, 'You guys are doing really good, keep it up!' Just little things that just makes us feel comfortable and more at ease here."
Despite being early in their tenure here at Washington State, Naomi and Reagan have established clear roles on this team. Naomi has played in nine games and started in two of them and Reagan has started all nine of them. We even saw these two both score in the Cougs home opener against Eastern Washington. "I think it was pretty cool because we both got to experience a college welcoming," Naomi said of the moment. Naomi also remembers when Reagan scored her goal, she started yelling, "There goes my roommate!"
From knowing each other since they were eight years old, playing against each other in the state championship game, winning a club championship together, and both scoring in the Cougars' home opener, these two stories are intertwined, and will continue to be as they carry out their collegiate careers' teammates, here, at Washington State.