SOCCER STAR HAS MORE GOALS IN SIGHT

"As soon as I set foot on the turf at Fauver Stadium, my number one goal was to win a national championship," says Garsys, who has been a linchpin for the Yellowjackets since the 1996 season.

"My number two goal was to be an All-American, and my number three goal was to graduate a better soccer player than I was when I entered.

"OK, so I accomplished the second and third goals, even if the first one, the national championship, didn't happen.

"But," she says, cheerfully moving on to Plan B, "I promised myself that if I wasn't going to win a national championship playing, then I'd wait and win one coaching."

A native of Henrietta, New York, the history major has been all over the field--literally--as a member of the women's soccer team. As coach Terry Gurnett '77 puts it, "She's played every position for us but the goal."

Starting in her freshman year as sweeper--a last line of defense before the goalkeeper--in her sophomore year Garsys moved up in the defensive scheme to stopper, a key position whose job is to defend the opponent's best player.

As a junior, Garsys was in the front line, where, as striker, she led the team in scoring with 10 goals and three assists. Her performance earned her New York State Player of the Year honors and a Second Team All-American designation.

An ankle injury in the middle of the 1999 season sidelined her briefly, but she returned as sweeper for the last few games of the season. She continued in that position for Rochester's post-season trip to the ECAC Northeast Championships--which, as Rochester Review was going to press, the 'Jackets won with a 3-0 victory over St. Lawrence to clinch the title.

"As sweeper, I pretty much finished where I started," she notes.

Gurnett says it's unusual for scrappy players to move forward in his lineup because he likes to take advantage of their natural tendency to go on the offensive, thereby making the defense more aggressive. "But with Aria, I just gave up and said, 'OK, you play forward,' " he says.

Heavily recruited out of Rush-Henrietta High School as a soccer and volleyball player, Garsys chose Rochester, she says, because she liked the combination of quality education and top-flight athletic opportunities.

(Her older sister, Audra Garsys '97 also played soccer for the Yellowjackets.)

"Rochester was pretty much the place where I could get the best of both worlds," she says.

Since her freshman year, Garsys has volunteered as a coach in Rochester youth leagues, including a league started by Jill McCabe '88, former All-American and member of the Yellowjackets' 1986 and 1987 national championship teams.

Two of Garsys' youth-league protégés--Valerie Palermo '03 and Laura VanValkenburg '03 --were first-year members of the Yellowjacket team this fall.

"That was a little weird at first," she says. "But I'm glad to have them on the team."

She hopes to continue guiding young athletes as a coach.

"I just find coaching extremely rewarding," she says. And then there's that national championship. . . .

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