2025 NewsTribune Girls Soccer Player of the Year: Mendota’s Crystal Garcia

Mendota senior Crystal Garcia describes herself as “really bad” when she was a freshman.

The Trojans weren’t too good, either.

Garcia scored one goal as a freshman and Mendota won only one game.

Although there wasn’t much success, Garcia enjoyed it and decided to dedicate herself to getting better.

“I really liked the sport and realized I could actually be good at it, so I started putting more work in,” Garcia said. “Instead of just showing up to practices every day, I was going by myself.”

Garcia joined a club soccer team with her older sister, Naitzy, and teammates Noemi Arteaga and Flor DeLao.

She saw a noticeable improvement as a sophomore as she scored 29 goals.

“The next season I was a different player,” Garcia said. “The season was so fun, and I was actually good. It made me love the sport even more.”

Garcia continued to put in work outside the school season, playing club and indoor soccer and heading to the field by herself to work on her shot.

She also, along with her teammates who played club, encouraged more Mendota players to work on soccer outside the school season.

“Many other girls started playing year round, and I think that helped us a lot because many girls learned more soccer IQ and how the game worked,” Garcia said.

Garcia’s individual work and the effort of the team came to fruition this spring.

Garcia had her best season as she scored an area-high 31 goals and passed out an area-best 15 assists while leading the Trojans to a school record 15 wins and their first regional championship since 2012.

For all she accomplished this season, Garcia is the 2025 NewsTribune Girls Soccer Player of the Year.

“She’s constantly trying to improve at practice every day,” Mendota coach Nick Myers said. “She has been since her freshman year. She’s a constant competitor.

“She had a phenomenal season. She’s a big, big reason why we won a regional for the first time in 12 years and set a school record for wins in a season.”

Garcia has been Mendota’s top offensive weapon for the past three years, but capped her career with her best offensive season with career highs in goals and assists.

She has a range of physical tools that help make her a potent goal scorer.

No. 1 is her speed. Myers said it was rare for an opponent to have a defender who could keep up with her.

“She could put that ball out in space and just outrun them,” Myers said.

Garcia also has the ability to shoot with both feet, which makes her harder to defend, Myers said.

Garcia said she also has the right mentality to score.

“I think my composure [helps me score],” Garcia said. “I’m able to look up, pick a corner and compose myself. I don’t stress out in the moment. I compose myself and finish.”

Because Garcia was Mendota’s top scorer for three years, opponents were well aware of her and game planned to slow her down.

She was double marked almost every match and sometimes opponents had their “whole entire back line focusing on her,” Myers said.

“At first it did bother me,” Garcia said about when opponents started focusing on her as a junior. “I didn’t like it at first because I felt a lot of pressure, but now because it happens so often, it’s just whatever.

“I don’t let it get to my head. I just try to use that as motivation to work harder. If I had multiple people marking me, then I just worked harder to get around them and show that they can’t stop me from scoring.”

Garcia also took advantage of the extra defenders to create opportunities for her teammates.

“We had some players this year who could help her out a little bit [with scoring],” Myers said. “When other teams focus in on her, Crystal made the right decisions and found open teammates who were able to finish.”

After helping build up Mendota’s program, Garcia is moving on to play at Rock Valley College in Rockford.

“She’s going to do really well at Rock Valley,” Myers said. “I don’t know if they’re going to play her as a forward or what they’ll do with her, but she’ll succeed because she’s a competitor.”

Garcia hopes the Trojans will continue to succeed as well.

“I really hope they continue to work hard after the season we had,” Garcia said. “I hope it encourages them to put the work in, and hopefully go as far as we did this year.”