In the fourth year of her athletic career at Princeton Day School, senior varsity captain and the Spokesman’s Athlete of the Month, Isabel Meyercord, emerged at the beginning of her final year in the Upper School ready to take leadership of both the girls’ varsity soccer and varsity basketball teams as team captain and a strong senior presence on mostly younger rosters. This fall, Meyercord helped lead girls’ soccer to success as the lone senior on the team. She played defense as the team cruised past many rival programs winning the Prep B championship for the second year in a row, beating perennial rival Lawrenceville, earning head coach Pat Trombetta his 100th victory along the way, and finishing the season with an impressive 17-2-1 record. Looking back, Meyercord said she was pleasantly surprised by the outcome of the season. “After losing an entire roster of seniors we sort of expected this year to be more rebuilding and regrouping”, she reflected. “But I was happy with how far we were able to get in the end.” Meyercord attributed the success of the soccer team in no small part to the leadership of head coach Pat Trombetta, saying, “We have a close connectionI’ve had him for four years, and he is probably one of the best coaches I’ve had. He knows the right time to praise and the right time to discipline. He knows how to motivate you as a player.” Meyercord has tried to strike that same balance as captain, noting that the challenge in leading a team is trying to find the balance between being a friend and a teacher.

Meyercord has also seen the girls’ basketball program go through great transformations in the four years she has played in the Upper School. During her freshman and sophomore years, the team was doing “a lot of development. We had to go back to the basics,” she said. Over the last year, however, the team has seen a lot of growth, pulling out wins over Princeton High School, George School, and beating the Hill School in their own tournament so far this year.

Meyercord believes that the key to success for both teams this year has been their chemistry, adding, “What I’ve learned from having some seasons that are successful and some that are not is that it’s very dependent on how the team gets along off the field and the court. It’s really important to make sure that everyone is getting along, everyone is happy, there’s no tension between the players.” When asked what her favorite part of participating in PDS sports is, Meyercord replied, “being able to meet and connect with girls you wouldn’t normally.” As for the future of the programs after her departure, she is optimistic, saying, “I think they will continue to put in the same sort of work as this year, and I have all the confdence in the world in the current juniors and younger players to step up and take leadership.” The Spokesman congratulates Isabel Meyercord on her athletic success at PDS and wishes her the best in college and beyond.