Naperville North junior Emily Buescher had never played high school soccer until last week, but fans can be forgiven for thinking they’ve seen her before.
Emily Buescher, a defender who played club the past two seasons, is the youngest of three soccer-playing siblings. Her brother, Matthew, and sister, Katelynn, also played for the Huskies.
Senior co-captain Reagan O’Malley, who plays next to Emily Buescher at center back, didn’t know her until tryouts. But O’Malley figured out something right away.
“You can tell she’s a little sister,” O’Malley said. “You can tell she’s been pushed around her whole life. She works so hard for the ball.”
Emily Buescher is nearly a carbon copy of her sister in that respect. She has the same build and physical style as Katelynn Buescher, who played defensive midfielder and led the Huskies to third place in Class 3A in 2018. Katelynn Buescher was the Naperville Sun player of the year that season, and she continued her career at Illinois. She never took it easy on Emily Buescher, who is 7 years younger.
“Being the youngest, especially in my family, nothing is given to you,” Emily Buescher said. “She would make me run around the house just because she wanted to. So I think that built a lot of underdog mentality.”
Like her sister, Emily Buescher will play in the Big Ten. She has committed to Minnesota. Naperville North coach Steve Goletz isn’t surprised.
“She’s a phenomenal athlete, and she’s a very, very good soccer player,” Goletz said. “It’s always been in their family. They will battle every second, every minute, and I think Emily is only going to get better as she continues to get more familiar with playing high school soccer.”
Four games into the season, that’s already apparent to Emily Buescher’s teammates.
“She’s just brought such high energy,” O’Malley said. “She’s stepping up every game. She’s not acting like, ‘Oh, I’m new.’ No, she owns it. She’s a leader out there.”
Emily Buescher and O’Malley have quickly become a solid duo in the middle of Naperville North’s defense, which also includes junior Abby Penn, sophomore Addison Sitzmann and freshman Lily Radek.
That unit allowed just six shots during a 0-0 tie against Fremd on Monday night. Sophomore goalkeeper Olivia Ochsner had to make only three saves in the frigid conditions in Palatine.
“(Emily Buescher) helps me so much,” O’Malley said. “We are both constantly talking out of the back, a lot of yapping. She’s brought such a good work ethic and energy to the team. The confidence is slowly starting to snowball.”
Communication is something Emily Buescher stresses.
“That’s a really big thing for me,” she said. “You’ll see it when I play. The more information you can give to people, the better they are, no matter what spot they’re in.”
Goletz said the Huskies (2-1-1) were already in a good spot before Emily Buescher joined the team. Her addition makes them even stronger.
“She does such a great job of putting pressure on the ball and snuffing out so much for us,” Goletz said. “It’s been a joy to coach her already. She’s respectful, she’s hardworking, she’s a good teammate. She is not only a perfectionist, but she’s also super driven to get better.”
That drive comes in part from her family. But while Emily Buescher and her sister both aimed for the same thing, they differ in how to get there.
“My mentality is different from Katelynn,” Emily Buescher said. “She loves to win; I hate to lose. I think part of that is she is the oldest. So she was used to being on top, and I was used to being on the bottom. So I don’t like losing.”
That’s apparent in the fierceness with which Emily Buescher plays.
“You will watch me dig the ball out and get so frustrated because I think we deserve to win every single game, but we have to act like we deserve to win every single game,” she said. “There’s a lot of similarities, but I would say that’s very different for me.”
Yet the Buescher sisters both love playing for the Huskies. Emily Buescher’s club team didn’t allow its members to play high school soccer until this year. That frustrated her, but she’s making up for lost time.
“Now I get to do the fun part of soccer, where I get to play with and meet new people and I get to work on me,” she said. “I couldn’t be more happy to be here. It’s an amazing team.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
