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When Melissa Downs, Rome Free girls soccer head coach, first met Isabella Lokker, she only knew the seventh grader as the younger sister of Nicolina Lokker, then a junior on Rome Free’s team. Lokker showed up to the team’s summer workouts with her sister, determined to prove she could hang with the varsity team.

This wasn’t her first time being the smallest player on the field. Lokker and her sister played club soccer for several years, and she had often played at a much higher level than her peers, Nicolina said. But even Nicolina was surprised at how well her younger sister adjusted to a more intense environment.

“To see her play with me…it wasn’t just, ‘Oh, we’re fooling around in the yard,’” Nicolina said. “She really surprised me with how well she could handle the pressure of being around older competitors.”

Now a sophomore at Rome Free Academy, Lokker is in her second year on the Black Knights’ girls varsity soccer team. While she trained with the varsity team in middle school, Lokker began playing for the junior varsity team as an eighth grader and joined varsity as a freshman. Last year, she scored six goals and an assist. Four games into her sophomore season, she already has a hat trick against Camden and two more against Holland Patent.

Though her technical ability left more to be desired as a middle schooler, Lokker remained fearless. It left a strong impression on Downs.

“When I’m watching someone play for the first time, I’m looking for coachability and a strong work ethic, because that’s something you can’t really teach a player,” Downs said. “(Isabella) brought a strong work ethic with her from day one.”

Born into a family of athletes, Lokker was introduced to soccer through Nicolina and her older brother, Tyler Lokker, when she was around four years old. Lokker always looked up to her older sister’s playstyle, but Nicolina said the two have distinct strengths, with Lokker playing stronger on the ball and a little “feisty.”

“Ever since we were little, me, my brother and my sister, we were super competitive,” Nicolina said. “We would come home every weekend and ask each other how many points we had, and we’d always push each other.”

Despite how difficult it was to break into a JV squad as a middle schooler, Lokker still wasn’t satisfied.

“I made JV in eighth grade, so I think I really wanted to work harder to make varsity my freshman year,” Lokker said.

It was this determination that helped her work her way into a key role on varsity in her freshman year. She had become a much stronger player in the years since Downs first met her, and her performances proved it.

Throughout the Black Knights’ 10-8 season, Lokker developed strong bonds with sophomores Amelia Furbeck and Brooke Egresits, who she credits for helping her adjust to the varsity level. But in a debut season full of impressive moments, no moment stood out more than her Sectional Quarterfinal game against Syracuse United.

In front of her home crowd, Lokker opened the scoring in the first half with a goal before adding an assist to close the first half. She concluded her dominant performance with another goal in the second half, bringing her tally to two goals and an assist, which advanced Rome Free to the semifinals with a 3-0 win.

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The team had an early exit in 2023, following up its Syracuse United win with a tight 2-1 loss to Cicero-North Syracuse. Despite Lokker’s debut season falling short of a championship, Downs had plenty of reasons for optimism heading into her next three years at Rome Free.

“I want to see continued growth from here, maybe developing some leadership skills,” Downs said. “But also just continuing the great habits she has that allow us to get into our offensive end, score some goals, and reach our team goals of potentially getting a sectional finals, or maybe winning a sectional final game before she graduates.”

Looking to the future, Lokker hopes to continue her soccer career at the collegiate level. But with three years left to go until she makes that decision, it’s not her biggest priority at the moment.

“My goals are to just keep pushing my team to work harder, and to help us win, and just be positive,” Lokker said. “And those are probably my goals for the rest of my time at Rome Free, too. Just try to help them win and to keep pushing each other.”

Published on September 23, 2024 at 11:25 pm

mjpalmar@syr.edu | @mpalmarSU