By Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

PEDRO — Four more years! Four more years!

That’s a traditional chant for people supporting an incumbent president running for a second term.

Emmi Stevens isn’t a politician but she is a soccer player and she’s going to add another four years to her career after signing on Friday to play for the Wilmington Lady Quakers.

Not only is Stevens adding four more years, but she’s the Rock Hill soccer commander in chief as she becomes the first four-year player for the Redwomen to play college soccer.

“It’s very exciting,” said Redwomen coach Summer Collins about Stevens’ letter-of-intent with Wilmington.

“She’s the first girl in this group of seniors to play all four years girls’ varsity soccer because we’re a four-year program. Now she’s the first girl to ever sign to play college soccer which is a huge accomplishment in itself.”

Wilmington has always sat at the top of Stevens’ list of possible college choices. She also talked with Wittenberg and was contacted by Marshall.

“I wanted to go to Wilmington because my sister (Bella) goes there and she could show me around and I like the coach,” said Stevens noting her sister runs cross country for the Lady Quakers.

The Quakers lose 10 seniors from this past season’s team, but she said there is nothing certain in terms of where she stands on the depth chart and she knows stepping up to the next level will take time.

“There was nothing that was a guaranteed spot, but I’m so excited,” said Stevens. “Playing at that level is so much quicker. It’s pass, pass, pass, pass. It’s going to be different and it’s going to be hard to get use to, but I’m ready for the challenge.

“I’ll have to work really hard because it’s a lot different pace and everyone is good.”

Soccer isn’t the only sport Stevens has played. In fact, her past athletic history has a plethora of activities.

She has played soccer and softball for the past four years, she was a cheerleader for three years, she played basketball for two years and ran one year of track and cross country.

“I’ve done softball since I was little. I’ve cheered since I was little. Basketball used to be my favorite, but when I started playing soccer and got to high school, soccer became my favorite,” said Stevens.

Stevens was an outside midfielder for the Redwomen and she expects to play the same position at Wilmington.

As an outside midfielder, she scored 36 goals in her career including the program’s first goal. She also had 36 assists.

Rock Hill won a third straight Ohio Valley Conference title this past season and reached the district finals for the first time in program history. She said the sectional title game at home was one of her most memorable moments.

“Winning OVC was fun and we won the sectionals and that was a home game and we had a really good crowd. Our student section was really good. We never had a big student section. That was really intense. It was fun and going to the district finals was fun,” she said.

“I was really proud of myself and my team. We just worked so hard over the summer. We worked from May into the season. We had a lot of new players and some had never played and they were starters.”

Stevens has served as the team captain for the past two years, was a two-time first team All-OVC, first team Coaches’ All-District this past season, a second team all-district selection as a junior, all-district honorable mention as a freshman and sophomore and she was named Offensive Player of the Year.

“She was a two-year voted captain so that speaks for itself and she’ll work hard and she’ll be just fine,” said Collins.

Stevens said Collins and assistant Josh Reynolds have been big influences for her along with her mother Myra.

“I used to get down. I was a bit of a Debbie Downer. I would get down really easily and they just always pushed me to be better. And my mom. She would be in the crowd hooping and hollering and that would keep me going,” said Stevens.

An honors graduate, Stevens plans to major in education with possible plans to coach youth soccer.