Lake Norman’s Means ready for UNC soccer
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (BVM) — What blossomed into a decorated soccer career started as a way to get Asha Means out of the house. When she was 4 years old, her parents were dealing with a newborn baby and her recklessness at home was a lot of added stress. So the neighborhood soccer team was the perfect release.
“My mom said that I was a menace around the house with too much energy,” Means said.
But that energy was transferred to the soccer field where Means quickly became a problem. As a U10 player, she was the driving force behind her team winning tournaments while playing up an age group. When she got to high school, she became a coveted Division I prospect, and this progression continued all the way through her senior year of high school where she was named the North Carolina Gatorade Girls Soccer Player of the Year.
In a season where her Lake Norman Charter Knights went 19-0 and won the Class 2A state championship, Means netted an outstanding 42 goals and also assisted on 11 others. She scored roughly 2.2 goals per game, earning first team All-State honors and South Fork Conference Player of the Year.
Having a professional athlete in the house has probably played a role in her development. Her dad, Natrone Means, was an NFL Pro Bowl running back during his hayday.
“He always coached me from an athlete’s perspective,” Asha said. “He was never the person who said, ‘you did this wrong’, instead he’d say, ‘as an athlete you can better yourself by doing this.’ My mom has always been super supportive, too. I could have played the worst game of my life and she’d say, ‘Asha, you played great.’”
But as she got deeper into her career, other people started to become fundamental in her success. Her parents don’t have the soccer background she needed to become one of the best, so that responsibility fell on someone else’s shoulders. Philip Poole, now the US Women’s National Team goalkeeper coach, was the man for the job.
Once the executive director of the Lake Norman Soccer Club, Poole was one of the big reasons Asha excelled in her craft.
“He’s one of the most supportive guys I’ve ever met in my life,” Asha said. “Before every game he would tell me, ‘you’re the best forward in the country and I wouldn’t trade you for anyone else.’”
That’s not where her assistance stops, though. Of course, Asha was complimentary of her teammates, saying that none of her goals would be able to be scored without their expertise. From the defense to the passing to the finish, it’s a combination of skills working together for the goal.
But, Asha takes credit, too, for being able to put the ball in the back of the net.
“My team this year is the backbone of everything I got done this year,” Asha said. “Also, yeah, it’s a game with 10 others on the field but you got to want to do it for yourself, too.”
Asha’s next chapter will now take place at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, paying homage to her father, mother and mother’s side of the family who are all alumni of UNC themselves. Whether she were to have a future in soccer or not, Asha says being a Tar Heel would’ve been her decision.
“I was born into it,” Asha said. “I went to a camp when I was 10 and did really well and told my dad, ‘yeah, I’m going to play Carolina soccer’ and at that time they were like, ‘yeah right, she’s going to play Carolina soccer.’”
Well fast-forward to her soon-to-be college career, and Asha is making them proud. Having become such a star through the help of people close to her, Asha wants that to continue and UNC claims to have that same type of environment: family. With her commitment to the program, she knows that she’s carrying out her family’s legacy and that’s something she wants to do forever.
“The program is amazing, so decorated, and has a family environment,” Asha said. “I know it’s not a four-year commitment, it’s a lifetime commitment.”
