C.J. Graham is a freshman for the Owen girls soccer team.
SWANNANOA – C.J. Graham is learning to be an Owen Warlassie even though she studies at another school.
The freshman soccer player is a student at the Nesbitt Discovery Academy and is bused daily to Owen for practice.
“People were very inviting and players took me under their wing to teach me how they play soccer,” said Graham, who had attended Asheville Christian Academy prior to this year.
So far, she forged new friendships and has put her mark on the team. Coming into Friday, she led the team with seven goals and had 33 saves as goalkeeper.
Graham is certainly a special player for the Warlassies (6-8-0) and she has shown her talent before.
Last year, she scored the eventual game-winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Caldwell Academy for the NCISAA 2-A state championship match. A teammate kicked a ball past the Caldwell defense late in the first half and Graham chased it down before she snuck a shot past the keeper.
“It was really neat knowing I was only an eighth grader and I scored a goal in the state championship,” Graham said. “It was a neat opportunity.”
This season she has excelled at her attacking midfield position and as a goalkeeper. She’s played three complete games in goal and that’s where 29 of her 33 saves came in.
On Monday, against Mountain Heritage, she posted a hat trick as the Warhorses won 3-0.
She likes both positions and has to think when asked for her favorite.
“It’s a really hard decision, but playing keeper is my position,” said Graham, who started some varsity matches as a seventh grader at Asheville Christian Academy. “I like the intensity and the decision-making going along with that.”
She didn’t begin playing goalkeeper until late in elementary school and took to the position.
Her decision to move schools was a need for something different.
“Going to Nesbitt Discovery Academy is so much fun,” she said. “There’s a lot of hands-on activity and it’s very technological.”
It’s a small campus located off the French Broad River near UNC Asheville that opened in 2014. Graham said the school only has 200 students so there is a lot on individual attention for students there.
After classes, that include AP Engineering and several college courses, she hops on a bus for 30 minutes to Owen for soccer.
“I had been at Asheville Christian for most of my life and it is a great school,” said Graham, who had never attended a public school until this year. “I just wanted a little change.”
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