LeFever to play soccer at Academy of Arts

For former Douglas High soccer standout Morgan LeFever, the past several months have been a collection of exceptionally good breaks.

After suffering through a couple of bad breaks over the past few years, it would only seem fair that she was due.

LeFever, the 2006 Sierra League Midfielder of the Year, has accepted a scholarship to play soccer for the Academy of Art University of San Francisco.

There's also a chance she'll be running track for the Urban Knights as well.

It's a far cry from where she was back in August.

LeFever, the state's all-time lead in goals in a career (56) and a season (26), graduated from Douglas in 2007 and was an invited walk-on to the University of Nevada.

She was cut from the team after only a handful of practices, but was already enrolled for the year and chose to stay in school.

Adveristy, after all, was nothing new. She came back from a severe ankle injury during the spring heading into her senior year and put together one of the best offensive seasons ever recorded in the area.

"I knew I still wanted to play (after Nevada)," LeFever said. "I made a point to keep my shape up, I started playing with a men's team in a recreation league in Reno and just kept my hopes up."

LeFever was interested in architecture and interior design, but if she continued at Nevada she would have had to pursue a dual degree.

"I heard from a friend that the Academy of Art University was starting an athletic program, so I checked it out," she said. "I saw that they offered interior design and architecture in one degree, so I knew it was perfect for me."

She filled out an information form and was contacted several days later with an offer to visit the campus.

"It was funny, because I used to say that I wanted to live in San Francisco some day," she said. "I fell in love with the city on an honor society trip in middle school.

"Now I'm getting all packed to move out there."

After the Urban Knight coaching staff got a hold of her career statistics and her resume, a scholarship offer didn't trail too far behind. She signed on in early May.

"It was a situation where I really didn't want to move somewhere and put all my eggs in one basket only to have what happened at UNR happen again," LeFever said. "I was hoping for a scholarship and they came through with one."

When LeFever, who was one of the fastest players in the region on the soccer field, was brought in to meet Academy of Arts' athletic director Jamie Williams, who won a Super Bowl ring in 1990 playing for the San Francisco 49ers, Williams happened to the school's track coach in the office with him.

"It was really spur of the moment," she said. "The soccer coach said I was pretty fast and the track coach said he was looking for sprinters. I hadn't run track since I was younger, but it sounded like fun to me."

She is expected to run the 100 and the 400.

Academy of Arts University applied for NCAA Division II status and was invited to join the Pacific West Conference, which includes three schools in Hawaii (Chaminade, Hawaii Pacific and BYU-Hawaii), Grand Canyon University, Dixie State and Notre Dame de Namur.

Williams has been able to use his pulling power to bring in some big names to help run some clinics for the first-year teams at the school. Former USA soccer standout Brandi Chastain will come out to help coach some of the Knights' practices and there have even been some rumors that Olympic gold-medalist Michael Johnson may come out to work with the sprinters during track season.

LeFever departs for training on July 19. Despite having completed her first year of academics, she'll still be considered a freshman in terms of athletic eligibility.

"It'll work out great because I'll have four years left of classes and four years of playing eligibility," LeFever said. "I'm looking forward to it."

- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.