Richland 200: Complacency not in No. 2 Yugovich's vocabulary, competitiveness is
ONTARIO — When Hattie Yugovich is on the soccer pitch, there aren't many players more calm, cool and collected.
That's where she is in her element. That's her sanctuary. And more often than not, that is where she and her team are enjoying a comfortable lead on the scoreboard.
But on the go-kart track, she is a different animal.
The No. 2 athlete in the Richland 200 is as competitive as they come - in anything and everything. If she is on the soccer pitch and it is a tie game or her team is trailing, which isn't often, she kicks it into high gear and goes to work getting her team a goal.
But on the go-kart track, where she went 0-2 against Ontario head soccer coach Larry Atkinson at a team-bonding outing in Cincinnati, Yugovich and her competitive streak take things to a whole new level. There is a lot of bumping around turns and even an attempt to run her coach into the wall so she could overtake first place. But no matter how badly she wanted to win, she didn't get her way.
So, she will have to take that anger out on the pitch in 2023 as she looks to lead the Ontario Warriors to yet another Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference championship and, if all goes according to her plan, a Division II district championship.
"I just love to compete," Yugovich said. "I love to win. I have that drive. For my club team, it is very competitive and if you don't have that fire, you are going to find yourself on the outside looking in. I just love to win and put my best into everything."
It is that competitive drive that led her to earn first team All-Ohio, first team All-District and first team All-MOAC honors during her freshman season at Ontario. She was also named Division II District Player of the Year and made the United Soccer Coaches Association's All-Central Region team naming her among the best from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Minnesota.
She was just one step away from being an All-American in just her first year of high school soccer. It is not surprising considering she scored 38 goals and handed out 25 assists as she led the Warriors to a 17-4 record.
And it didn't happen by accident. Yugovich plays for one of the primer club teams in Ohio and even in the country with the Cleveland Internationals. When it isn't match day, she is at a soccer pitch somewhere in the state working on her craft.
It is all due to hard work.
"I tried to do something active in soccer at least six days a week and made sure I had that one rest day," Yugovich said. "I tried to make sure I got plenty of shots because I want my percentage to go up this year because I wasn't satisfied with them last season. I am working a lot on my touches and making sure those improve with more control. I also worked on my speed. I want to be a lot faster this year while also working on my endurance. There is a lot of work left for me to do and I am all in on doing it."
On days when most kids her age would be playing video games or watching TV, Yugovich finds herself unable to sit still. So, she grabs her cleats, shin guards and a ball and heads to wherever there is a soccer goal standing.
"It is rare nowadays," Larry Atkinson said. "When I was growing up years ago, we got together as kids all the time and were always doing something athletic-related on our own. There are a lot more things today's youth does like working jobs and things like that. But Hattie puts a lot of time in along with quite a few other girls on the team. She works on a daily basis on her skills to get ready for the season."
And it is a season full of promise. The Warriors return just about everyone from a team that helped the program reach its 14th district championship match last season and a fourth straight Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference championship. Despite all of the team and personal success, Yugovich is far from satisfied.
"With what happened last year, it is all about pushing to be better than that both as a team and individually," Yugovich said. "There is so much more to accomplish. Winning the MOAC again and making sure we go further in the tournament is always going to be the main goal for every season."
And she expressed those goals at the team's first practice. As she addressed her teammates with her lost of goals, she vowed to do everything in her power to achieve them and invited them along for what could be a memorable ride.
"At our midnight madness practice, we had a long conversation about goals and asked each one of the girls what their team goals were for the upcoming season," Larry Atkinson said. "We gave each player the responsibility to come up with 3-4 personal goals for the season and everyone was pretty spot on with what they wanted for the team with winning a league championship again and getting over that district tournament hump.
"Hattie will be a big part of achieving those goals. Her progression from last year to this year has been phenomenal. She has improved in a lot of the areas we asked her to work on during the offseason and she has put in the time to do that. She was a holding mid for her club team before she was in high school and when we got her, we put her as an offensive-minded mid and that has turned her into an offensive mid at the club level. We can see the development since last fall and we have high expectations of her."
And she has high expectations of herself. Yugovich is headed into her sophomore year as one of the most decorated players from last season, but last season is last season. All of those accomplishments are in the past and the only thing left to do is repeat.
"As a freshman with the achievements she had, I haven't coached anyone like that," Atkinson said. "But, she works extremely hard and works with her teammates."
Ontario assistant coach Greg Atkinson agrees.
"The thing that sets her apart from a lot of the players I have seen is with anything she does, she is a competitor," Greg Atkinson said. "When we were racing go-karts and she is just going at it with the desire of wanting to beat you. That is her personality. She ran track for the first time this spring and nearly made it to state in the high jump. That is just the type of individual she is."
And Yugovich was the type of individual to look at how depleted the Ontario girls soccer roster was last year after losing 10 seniors and seeing an All-American decide to not play. Instead of feeling sorry for herself and her teammates, she took it as a challenge.
"A lot of folks didn't think we were going to do what we did last year graduating 10 seniors and missing an All-American, but we filled in and over-achieved and it was because of Hattie's leadership," Greg Atkinson said. "But she went into the offseason knowing we didn't achieve what she wanted to as a team. Sure it was great for her to receive all that individual stuff, but she would trade it all for a district championship. That is who she is."
And that is who she is going to be for the next three years. No matter what the Warriors do this year, she is going to want to one-up it next year. And whatever they do next year, it is a sure bet Yugovich will want to make her senior year the best she possibly can.
"I want the game to keep improving and the team to stay connected," Yugovich said. "I want every year to be a better season than it was the previous year because improvement is a great motivator. I want to keep improving and doing the best we possibly can from year to year and if we can do that, we can do some special things."
More special than being named No. 2 in the Richland 200?
"It means so much," Yugovich said. "I never would have believed something like this would happen. I remember last year, looking at the list and thinking, 'Man, to be on that list would be such an incredible honor'. To be on it is insane."
What may be more insane is the bright future Yugovich has in high school soccer (definitely not on the go-kart track) and beyond.
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Twitter: @JakeFurr11
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Richland 200: Ontario's Hattie Yugovich comes in at No. 2 after All-Region year
