University of Georgia Athletics
Star Soccer Forward Always 'Loved It'
November 06, 2011 | Soccer
Nov. 6, 2011
By Rachel G. Bowers for the Red & Black
ATHENS, Ga. --- Alexa Newfield was yanked at halftime during the first soccer match she ever played.
At 4 years old, dressed in her first soccer jersey, Alexa put one tiny foot in front of the other, navigated the 15-by-30 yard field and found the back of the net. A lot.
But the other tykes on the field had not quite figured out the game, running to their parents on the sidelines, waiting for orange slices and Capri Suns and playing a game of glorified tag. Like most 4-year-olds.
Not Alexa.
"She wasn't polite about it. She just wanted the ball," said Deidre Newfield, Alexa's mother.
At halftime, the opposing team's coach trotted across the field to have a chat with Alexa's coach. We're not gonna play anymore if you don't pull that girl off the field, he said.
Shocked and confused, Alexa was told it was no longer her turn and took a seat on the sideline.
"And then [Alexa's] coach came over when they ended the game and said, 'I'm so sorry. That was the worst decision I ever made. She has every right to be in,'" Deirde said.
'I fell in love with it'
As a little girl, Alexa was drawn to the competition and challenge of sports. She can thank her brother Max for that. Though Max is four years her senior, Alexa wanted to do everything big brother did. Little League baseball, hockey, basketball and soccer were all in her rotation throughout the year. And more than once, she was the only girl on her baseball and soccer teams. But she didn't care, she thrived.
Weekend soccer trips dotted the calendar every week, and grew to dominate Alexa's life as Deidre would cart her daughter everywhere she needed to go to get her soccer fix.
"She just loved it. Anything with a ball when she was little," Deidre said. "But soccer definitely won out."
Once she shed the other sports, Alexa got her first taste of club soccer in the form of Scottsman Terry Wilson.
"I was at the age of like 10, if that, and he's like, 'You're a has-been!" Alexa said, laughing. "He gave me tough skin."
Through his thick accent and unorthodox approach, Alexa learned the game on a strategic level. The shape of the game and the mental aspects were transplanted from Wilson's brain into Alexa's. And Deidre was just along for the ride.
The mother and daughter spent the first few months they knew Wilson deciphering what he was saying and what he was trying to teach his players. Through many car rides home from practice discussing the eccentric coach's methods, the two learned the game and its complexities together.
"She's far surpassed me," Deidre said, laughing. "I don't have much to offer anymore."
But that doesn't stop Alexa from picking her mother's brain after every match, even today. The good, the bad, the ugly, Alexa wants to hear it all, even from mom. She wants to be the best. That's just how she's wired.
"She became a kid that I identified that had this soccer-knocker mentality that just had a desire to get better and better and to be challenged. So constantly I challenged her to do things in the games and separate herself," said Campbell Chapman, Alexa's club coach at Gwinnett Soccer Association. "She knows what she's gotta do to become a better player."
And Alexa got small tastes of top-tier soccer that made her only hungry for more.
A trip to England in eighth or ninth grade proved to be a test, but one that would yield an experience that couldn't be duplicated, Alexa recalled.
It was one of the many all-boy teams of which Alexa's name graced the roster. It was a tournament against England's top programs — the youth boys' teams of Arsenal, Manchester United and Portsmith, just to name a few.
After suffering a huge loss in the first game and struggling through the tournament, a moment came for Alexa and her team. And against a professional keeper earning €100,000 a week, Alexa netted the goal that sealed the win over the squad from Portsmith.
"He was 18 and I was 14 and I scored," Alexa said. "At that point, that was the best thing I had ever done."
Not too long after that trip, Alexa had to leave playing on the boys teams as memories from her salad days. The guys she played with and against kept growing, getting bigger and stronger. She had gotten what she needed out of playing with boys, and was tired of "running into brick walls," as her father phrased it.
"Physically, they would just ride her right outta bounds," said Peter Newfield, Alexa's father. "It didn't bother her, the guys were just getting too big."
But she had yet to reach her peak.
It was a game played on a flooded, muddy field in Oklahoma during her club team's run in regionals when Alexa first caught the eyes of college scouts. Caked in mud, grass stains galore, Alexa was unaware of the college coaches watching from the sideline. But after the match, they were quickly made aware of who she was.
"I remember some college coaches coming up to me after the game and said, 'Who is that kid, we've never seen her before,'" Chapman said. "In that particular event she kind of broke through to show that she had some special qualities that were gonna take her through to where she is now."
And where she is now, she landed after several state championships — club ball and high school — a few high school records and a high school national championship (those are just the highlights.)
She wanted to be a part of a college program on the rise, a program for which she and her teammates could win the first SEC championship. She wanted to play at a college in a town she could grow to love. She wanted mom and dad to watch her play from the stands, not on their couch with a TV staring back at them. She just couldn't do it to her mom to stray too far from home.
And then there are the colors.
"I like the red and black," Alexa said. "I couldn't wear orange. It would look terrible. Gotta think about the colors."
Of the four Newfields, each went to a different SEC school — dad a Florida alumnus, mom a South Carolina alumna and brother Max an Auburn alumnus — creating a truly divided household.
After purchasing a Georgia sweatshirt for her older brother, Alexa now spends time leading up to matches against Auburn trying to convince Max to throw on his Bulldog gear for the game. But Max will oblige only if it is chilly weather because ties to your alma mater, especially in the SEC, are strong. And he chants "War Eagle" to her "Go Dogs."
There was a small adjustment period to college life. Alexa was used to the traveling demands that come with soccer. She was used to missing class in high school and making up the work on the car rides back to her Atlanta home. But these college trips are a bit more demanding, returning to Athens at 3:30 a.m. only to wake up for an 8 a.m. class.
But there was no break in her accomplishments on the field. She kept finding the net her freshman season, much like that first game when she was 4 years old. She wants the ball. And Georgia head coach Steve Holeman watched as Alexa tallied eight goals, four assists and was named to first team All-SEC.
"She right away established herself as one of the top players in the league and not only did she back that up her sophomore year, but she's kinda risen above and beyond," Holeman said. "She's been the difference in so many games we've played this year, just an invaluable part of our success. She's really taken her game to another level."
Leave it to Alexa to nearly double her goal total from her freshman year to her sophomore season, leading the team with 15. Leave it to her to be perfect on penalty kicks (5-for-5) and chip in with eight assists. Leave it to her when you need a win — give her the ball.
"You really get a sense of her releasing her spirit," Peter said. "It's just a joy to watch somebody expend that much effort on a soccer field and do that well at it. That's the product of everything. She loves Georgia, she loves the soccer team. She's in a great place, so she can just kind of turn it on."
The goofball, the daughter, the friend
You can rattle off her impressive stats, talk about the championships she's won and marvel at the records she holds at St. Pius X. You can say soccer has helped define her, and that the game has taught her lessons about life.
But Alexa just wants to have a good laugh, and she wants you to join in with her.
She may decide to jump into a trash can at Vanderbilt for a short photo shoot and to create some laughs among her teammates.
She may wait outside your dorm or apartment door and spray you down with her monstrous water gun when you walk out.
She may show you how her nose will push and pull around her face like silly putty because she says she doesn't have a nose bone. (Dad says she just has loose cartilage.)
And that's when you can tell she's comfortable — she'll act like a goofball.
"Our family is pretty goofy," Deidre said. "We like to laugh, maybe too much."
She's the source of laughter in the locker room, dancing and singing to provide in-house entertainment before games and practices. She's quick for a witty comment or comeback.
"She's the sorta kid that can score the three goals on Saturday and Friday and win you the game and she's the kid at practice that turns up with mismatched stuff," Chapman said. "She looks like she got dressed out of the bottom of her wardrobe. She's totally not pretentious."
But she especially loves the 18-plus-hour car ride to her family's cottage on Lake Spofford in New Hampshire. It's her favorite place on Earth.
She can drive the boat or catch one of the many small-mouth bass that call the lake home. She can take a plunge into the water off a rope swing or paddle out to her favorite island on the lake.
"A very peaceful place. She's a great fisherman or fisherwoman. She can catch a fish any time," Peter said. "I bet she's caught an easy 2-pounder."
And for another laugh, Alexa and Max, at the request of mom, wore bicycle helmets on several of the car rides to the lake to protect from the mini TV or gaming system getting slung onto their heads in the case of a car accident.
"And finally when my brother got old enough, he was like, 'Mom, you do realize the force of the car would actually send the TV to you and dad in the front seat and you'd be fine so I think you guys should be wearing the helmets,'" Alexa said.
But even underneath the goofball layer, Alexa offers a characteristic to be admired — her heart. Just as she rises to the occasion on the soccer field, she keeps her composure off the field to be there for others when they need it.
Alexa was the first phone call for a close friend whose sister was in a fatal car crash in high school. She sat with her close friend at the hospital, held her hand, did what she could. And at 12, upon walking off the field after winning a tournament and a medal, Alexa faced the toughest news of her young life.
"She had just won a medal and went over to [her uncle's] house and he had died right before the match," Peter said. "The rest of the family knew, but it was Alexa's favorite uncle so we didn't tell her until after the match. That was a tough one."
Deidre said her daughter has a deep soul. She takes people as they are, doesn't hold grudges and understands the big picture.
"I think a lot of those experiences have made her very humble I think," Peter said. "She realizes there's a bigger world out there outside of soccer and I just think it makes her a little more worldly."
But put a challenge in front of her, and she'll find a way to overcome it — just give her the ball.
"I hope that she always is reaching her goals. I know that she's been really happy at Georgia and took on that commitment this year of taking herself to another level and she was able to do that. I hope she's always able to do that," Deidre said. "Enjoy life. And a challenge — she needs to be challenged."
