All-Time Greats: Negron '05, Matheson '08 Share Thoughts with Tiger Soccer Community
3/26/2021
Tigers current and former and those around them met as so many meetings are happening during the pandemic, via Zoom, to hear thoughts from and ask questions of two of the program's all-time greats, Esmeralda Negron '05 and Diana Matheson '08.
The attendees included those who preceded Negron and Matheson, teammates, and those hardly old enough to have seen them play as Tigers, but the experiences, accomplishments and words crossed those generational lines.
After some get-to-know-you questions – Matheson's favorite class at Princeton was classical mythology; Negron was an accomplished saxophone player before coming to Princeton – the discussion turned to the 2004 season, the only one Matheson and Negron shared.
That year, as followers of the program know well, saw Princeton finish 19-3 and reach the NCAA semifinals to become the first Ivy League team in any sport to make the final four of a 64-team tournament.
The season was Matheson's first joining a program that had been to each of the previous five NCAA tournaments, and the season opener was an indication for the future Olympic medalist of what was to come that fall.
“I know we when we beat (No. 5) Texas A&M in our first game and they were pretty highly ranked, I feel like that was a pretty good sign, and then when the (NCAA) tournament bracket came out and we were ranked seventh and we saw (our path), I think we had a pretty strong sense we could make a good run because the stars seemed to be aligning a bit."
The stars aligned once the tournament got going as well. Princeton was the seventh overall seed in the tournament, and it would get the first three rounds of the tournament at home as long as it kept winning. The Tigers did, and as it turned out, once Maryland upset second-seeded Penn State, the quarterfinal round came to Princeton too.
“It was this unwavering sense and feeling of confidence. We didn't really ever doubt that we were going to win a game,” Negron said of the tournament. “I just remember we all were super confident. We loved being on the field. We love the game more than anything, and so just the passion, the really authentic and true passion for the game, and then just this amazing confidence and flow, almost like it was our destiny where we were destined to kind of have that great run, but it wasn't something we thought about. We just had this crazy amount of confidence.”
After three shutouts, ranging from a first-round five-goal win to a double-overtime win in round two, Princeton hosted Washington in that quarterfinal game, a memory that remains clear as ever 17 years later.
“The game was starting and the stands were completely packed and filled, and then I looked and there was a line of people all the way through the fence all the way down to the parking lot, and it was incredible,” Negron said. “I remember being so incredibly proud of our team in seeing that.”
Nearly two decades on, both Negron and Matheson hold prominent places in the Princeton record book, even with subsequent teams that have added five NCAA tournament appearances and a trip to the NCAA quarterfinals in the years since.
Negron graduated as Princeton's all-time leader in career points (112) and goals (47) and held those records for 12 years. She's still the program's single-season points and goals record holder, with 52 points and 20 goals in that 2004 season. Matheson, a midfielder, graduated fourth in program history in career points (78) and is now eighth. She graduated as the program's career assists leader (26) and held that record for 10 years.
Though their time at Princeton only overlapped for one season – and what a season it was – game recognized game when Negron helped welcome Matheson to the program.
“I just remember being so excited to play with her on the field because she just brought another level of professionalism and experience," Negron said. "Her technical and soccer IQ was just at another level, so her coming into the squad, I think, that year made us get to the final four in a lot of ways.”
Since Princeton, Matheson has put together an outstanding international and professional career on the field, winning Olympic bronze with Canada in both the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, scoring the goal to deliver Canada its the first of those two medals. She played for Canada in four FIFA Women's World Cups, from 2003 through 2015. She played professionally in Europe and now in the NWSL, currently with Kansas City.
Matheson's career has bridged an era of tremendous growth in women's soccer, something that her longevity and achievements in the sport have no doubt contributed to in the eyes of countless Canadian girls.
“When I first made the national team, the generation before me, that group of trailblazers that were playing for Canada, they all had second jobs. There were maybe two or three women on that team who were playing professionally anywhere. That has, obviously, changed in my career, that everyone plays pro somewhere and it’s your full-time job. It has to be,” Matheson said. “Every World Cup, every four years, the jump in the level in play is incredible, and I think it’s going to keep building.”
As that building continues, roles for women need to continue to grow along with it, Matheson said.
“The best people to run it are the people that have lived it. We just have to start creating more programs as much as we can, mentoring programs, coaching programs, refereeing programs, training for general manager roles, business roles like Es is doing, we need people at the highest level possible,” Matheson said. “Hopefully there will be some exponential growth which, once we see a few more faces that look like us doing it, we’ll just get more and more women who think it’s normal and start doing it.”
Negron, too, has stayed in the soccer world, beginning in the earlier days of professional women's soccer in Europe before turning to coaching, including serving under her former coach Julie Shackford, as an assistant for Shackford's last four seasons. Since, Negron has turned to the business side and has co-founded Atalanta Media, which seeks to broaden the reach that women's soccer has to put itself in front of fans across the globe.
“We want to make sure that women’s pro football is accessible to everybody,” Negron said. “We secured the FA WSL (England) rights in the U.S., Germany and Italy, and then we also did the same for the French league, D1F, and then we partnered with premium broadcasters like NBC and ESPN+ to make sure that these matches were on broadcast, front and center, to start to normalize it alongside men’s soccer.”
Those in the Zoom audience are at their own stages of their academic and professional lives, and for those in the place Negron was in close to 20 years ago, she had advice from her own experiences in the years since.
“The resilience that you have as an athlete in dealing with challenges and obstacles and setbacks I think can very much be applied, if you can do it, to your regular life,” Negron said. "I think all those lessons, just loving the game and keeping it with me for my entire life, I’ve taken that with me from when I was young, and my career at Princeton definitely played a role in that."
Where Matheson and Negron played under Shackford, the current Tigers have Sean Driscoll in that role, leading a program that made NCAA tournaments in three of the five seasons the program played during his tenure, including the run to the 2017 NCAA quarterfinals.
“I’m incredibly grateful that Diana and Es took the time to spend with our student-athletes and Friends of Soccer group. Those in attendance were treated to their wisdom, insight and experiences as they reminisced about the historic 2004 season and their soccer-driven careers since graduation. Their passion for the beautiful game and its worldwide growth and promotion is nothing short of inspiring. Es and Diana are incredible ambassadors for the sport and I eagerly look forward to where their combined efforts take women’s soccer in the future.”
The visit from Matheson and Negron continued a series of guest speakers for the Princeton soccer community to keep ties while apart during the pandemic. The men's program has had guests including Bob Bradley ‘80, who coached the U.S. men’s national team and now coaches the MLS club LAFC.
“It was awesome to have two Princeton Soccer legends visit our Friends of Soccer group," Princeton men's coach Jim Barlow said. "I was lucky enough to see them both play, and dominate, often when they were undergraduates, and it was fun to hear them sharing their perspectives and memories from their time at Princeton. It’s also amazing the impact that they both have had, and continue to have, on the global game in their professional lives.”
