Girls Soccer Player of the Year

Charging into the record books

North Montgomery's Teegan Bacon shatters records, earns JR Girls Soccer Player of the Year

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Charging into
the record books

NM’s Teegan Bacon shatters records,
earns JR Girls Soccer Player of the Year

Codey Emerson

codey@jrpress.com

LINDEN — Julie Hodges has seen her fair share of great soccer players come through the North Montgomery program over the years. It started with Brynn Anderson coming to the program in 2014 and winning player of the year in 2018. Then in comes Sidney Campbell who takes home a player of the year herself in 2019 and co-player of the year last season with Teegan Bacon.

This season, with Campbell now gone, it was all on Bacon to lead the way for the Chargers. Not only did she do that in the midst of a  pandemic, but she shattered records along the way.

“Teegan is the best soccer skilled player that I’ve ever coached,” Hodges said. “We’ve been fortunate to build this culture of great soccer over the years and we’ve had some amazing players, but in terms of pure soccer skill, Teegan tops the charts.”

Her 33 goals this season are the most in a single season in school history and she did that playing in 15 games. The Chargers 4-3 record in the Sagamore Conference tied them for third place with county rival Southmont which is the best finish in school history.

With all of those records and accolades, Bacon is the 2021 Journal Review Girls Soccer Player of the Year.

Bacon is a natural leader and she was ready for whatever was asked of her.

“This year I felt comfortable stepping into that role because I felt like a lot of responsibility was entrusted in me,” Bacon said. “I know that I have a lot of soccer knowledge and I want to help this program continue to break records. If you want to be the best, you have to act with humility because your ego outshines your abilities.”

Bacon is a part of the Indiana Fire Juniors Soccer Club in Westfield and plays soccer year round.

“I told my parents back in seventh grade that I wanted to start playing travel soccer,” she said. “I was playing with girls I never imagined I’d get to compete with. Despite the insane skill level of those girls, I continued to push myself to compete with them.”

Bacon ended the year with 68 career goals, which ties her with Campbell for the most goals in school history.

Coming into every game Hodges and Bacon knew she would be at the top of every teams scouting report and they would be looking for some way to contain her.

“Time and time again other teams were trying different tactics to stop her,” Hodges said. “When we had her and Sidney it was hard to stop both of them, but I remember asking Teegan how is she going to adjust now that she’s the main focus. The amount of improvement that she’s shown from her sophomore year to her junior year was tremendous, so she answered my question pretty well. She’s just a tactically good soccer player.”

With all of the success and talent Bacon possesses, she knew what she and her team were capable of accomplishing.

“Everything I’ve achieved came from myself believing that no one can stop us,” she said. “Once I started owning that narrative it all started to click. This year there was nothing that I’d let be an excuse or obstacle in achieving our goals. Mentality is a decision. You’ll never grow if your satisfied with the mental state that comes from comfort.”

Bacon can join an elite club next season. She is 32 goals away from 100 career goals — a feat only accomplished twice in Montgomery County history by Crawfordsville’s Hannah Wicker and Southmont’s Macy Zachary.

The game that stood out the most this season for Bacon was when she scored all six of the Chargers goals in a 6-4 win over Lebanon.

“I felt like I was on top of the world after that game,” she said. “We played well as team and to beat Lebanon felt amazing. I walked away from that knowing that I had 68 goals and that going into next year, I have a shot to get 100.”

Hodges saw the switch flip for Bacon and as soon as that happened, it was off and running.

“Her freshman season she was coming into a team with the likes of Sidney Campbell who was dominating and she didn’t want take away the spotlight from her. She then found out that they both can dominate together and I saw that mindset switch to a killer instinct.”

Bacon never saw soccer as the sport she’d dominate. However, she’s glad  she found it.

“No one in my family has ever played and I had to teach myself and learn the game,” she said. “I’m thankful that I have parents who sacrifice so much of their time and all of the people that I’ve had in my corner.”

Hodges has seen some of her great players move on to play collegiately. But she knows right now she is watching the best player to ever come through the program.

“To be the best out of the 150 players or so that I’ve coached takes a tremendous amount of work,” Hodges said. “Teegan is a natural athlete and to be able to hone her craft and become the best also takes a ton of dedication. You see athletes get burned out time and time again because you have to put in so many hours but soccer has been a passion of Teegan’s and she’s going to do everything possible to continue to get better and that’s what makes her the best.”

Once again the Chargers will ask Bacon to lead them next year after graduating ten seniors this past season. 100 goals is in sight and the best player in North Montgomery girls soccer history is ready to make some more history next season.


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