UMass goalkeeper Megan Olszewski’s resiliency stands out on and off the soccer field – MassLive.com

UMass Rudd Field 9/15/21. UMass goal keeper No.28 Megan Olszewski, is introduced at UMass Rudd Field. photo by J. Anthony Roberts
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of a Title IX-focused series created by UMass’ Journalism 332 Sports Writing class.
In a run-down hockey rink in Methuen, there are sliding doors, old bleachers and retro seats. It is in this old-styled building where Megan Olszewski got on the ice with an all-boys team beginning at 4 years old.
Olszewski played ice hockey in Assabet Valley with all-boys teams. It wasn’t until she was 7 that she was able to play on all-girls teams. Even then she’d still have to play against boys older than her.
She was too good at the sport for boys to care that she was a girl, but that doesn’t mean she was always treated equally or that there weren’t any issues.
“I would tell (my future daughter) that it’s not always going to be easy,” said Olszewski, who just finished her junior year as the UMass women’s soccer team’s goalkeeper. “Being able to give them resources to become independent and strong and be able to stand up for what they believe is right, I think is really important. It’s not going to be a smooth sailing ride the whole time but being able to have resources and learn stuff early on is going to help her hopefully succeed.”
In high school, Olszewski played both soccer and ice hockey at a high level, but had to choose between the two. Despite her skill level in both sports, Olszewski often had to prepare for and endure challenges off the field and ice.
“I’ve seen it while I’ve played. I’ve talked to my mom about this, she’s like, ‘you’re always going to have to keep proving yourself. Over and over and over,” she said. “And it’s going to get really tiring and exhausting, but you’re going to have to do that.’”
“In the end I think she was able to play with all boys because she was very good at what she did,” Olszewski’s older brother Matt said. “She was very resilient and didn’t really ever let them get to her. She was very much just herself and just played the game and focused on bettering herself and playing as well as she could.”
Still, Olsewski has had to fight harder than many to achieve success. She was diagnosed with ADHD, dyslexia and a seizure disorder when she was very young. Through years of rigorous childhood schooling at The Carroll School and consistent effort, she has found ways to overcome these difficulties.
Regardless of the sport, Olszewski has battled inequality for much of her athletic career.
Olszewski’s parents moved her from the boys hockey team to the girls team due to the preferential treatment that some of the players were getting. Teams were often run by fathers of players on the team, who were giving their boys playing time over Olszewski.
To address gender inequality in sports, Title IX was signed into law in 1972, barring people from being discriminated against in educational programs or activities that are funded by the federal government on the basis of sex, including sports programs. This year marked the 50th anniversary since the passing of Title IX.
“To be honest, I don’t really think (Title IX) is talked about enough,” Olszewski said. “I don’t think there’s enough education on what Title IX is. Personally, I feel like I could learn more about what it is. But obviously it’s a good thing to have in place.”
Olszewski won a high school state championship as a senior under Megan Young, the girls soccer coach at Exeter High School. Young believes Title IX brought about considerable progress in women’s sports.
“The exposure, the opportunities that women had, I’ve seen that grow leaps and bounds since I was a player in high school and since I played in college,” Young said. “And throughout my coaching, I’ve definitely seen the opportunities grow and the exposure grow tremendously for women. That continues to get better and better every day.”
Elizabeth Olszewski, Megan’s mother, said some of the work left to be done revolves around trusting women in positions of leadership.
“When we look back on Megan’s athletic career, she’s had many male coaches both on hockey and soccer,” she said.
“But some of her best coaches have been female coaches –– I think she would probably say that, too. There is something to be said about increasing female involvement and role modeling from a coaching perspective.”
Her club soccer team, Seacoast United, have both boys and girls squads. When she was 12, they had the opportunity to go to England and train for two weeks in now-Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion’s facilities.
“There was such a striking difference in how the boys in England played soccer as opposed to the girls teams,” said Scott Olszewski, Megan’s father. “The boys went on these great trainings on these beautiful fields and (Megan’s team) was on this annex field past the turf field, next to the town dump.”
This is far from the only example of her teams getting unequal treatment. In high school, Megan’s hockey teams had to practice at 5 a.m., while the boys team practiced after school and always got a better schedule. Varsity girls games played in the smaller, annex rink while the boys got the stadium rink.
“In some ways you become kind of numb to it, and that’s a horrible thing to say,” Elizabeth Olszewski said. “Because you just see the progress from say 25, 50 years ago, right now in our world –– these young women have less access than they did back then.
“You can look at it as a glass half-full and let all your energy be sapped by it, or you can take it and try to kind of turn it into a teachable moment with your children.”
With the help of Title IX, Megan has enjoyed an incredible career at the college level. But while she’s been given equal opportunity, her opportunity still isn’t equal. There’s a lot of work left to be done.
While soccer consumes most of her days there’s more to Megan Olszewski than stopping shots.
“At the end of the day, soccer is not my identity,” Olszewski said. “And I think that’s easy for people to say, ‘I play a Division I sport’ but at the end of the day, you’re not going to be playing soccer for your whole life. So for me, being able to think about when I graduate, what I’m going to be doing, that excites me.”
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