Over the last two weeks, from the grass fields of the Waipio Soccer Complex to various turf stadiums, the quality of Hawaii’s youth soccer scene was on full display in the HHSAA boys and girls championship tournaments.
For most of those players, that will be the height of their career in the sport. An elite handful of them have tickets to the next level via scholarship to advance their careers at universities.
Once every several years, the state produces a player who takes things even further — a Brian Ching, Natasha Kai or Bobby Wood.
One local product recently reminded the local soccer community of what is possible through perseverance.
Sunshine Fontes, a Pearl City High alumna from Wahiawa, capped a breakout 2022 women’s soccer season at UCLA with a hard-earned NCAA championship against North Carolina on Dec. 5. The forward recorded an assist in a wild comeback from two goals down in the final 10 minutes of regulation as Bruins triumphed 3-2 in double overtime for the second national title in program history.
“It doesn’t get better than that,” Fontes told Spectrum News some weeks later. “It’s still so crazy to me.”
Fontes, sporting No. 50 on her jersey, played 103 of a possible 110 minutes in the championship, with a match-high five shots, including three on frame.
Anyone who’d tracked Fontes’ youth career wouldn’t have been surprised by those numbers. She was already a star by the time she arrived on campus in 2019. The all-time leading scorer for the Under-17 national team with 24 goals, she helped clinch a World Cup berth for the U.S. with two scores in the 2018 CONCACAF semifinals.
But her collegiate career took a little while to get going.
Fontes red-shirted her first season while she recovered from an ACL injury from late in her senior year at Pearl City. In 2020, as a red-shirt frosh, she was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman team with five goals, primarily as a bench player.
She had a supporting role in 2021 as a reserve under UCLA's coaching staff at the time.
“Honestly, I was not having fun previously,” Fontes said. “I think (2022) was just a restart. It was so refreshing just to enjoy the game, have fun. So, it definitely brought back memories of the good old days with the youth national team.”
She credited a new team culture brought in by first-year coach Margueritte Aozasa, a former Stanford assistant. Aozasa arranged all manner of team bonding activities — “Jeopardy,” board games, deeper conversations — to help bring together a team still reeling over a first-round upset loss to UC Irvine to end 2021.
“This group was definitely the closest off the field. We cared and loved for each other like no other team probably ever,” Fontes said.
Fontes emerged as a workhorse in the offensive third and finished as the Bruins’ leading scorer with 11 goals, and was second in assists with eight. She was a second-team All-Pac-12 honoree after starting 21 of 25 games.
There were personal highlights aplenty: a hat trick against CSUN; a game-winner three days later at Santa Clara; and deciding scores against Arizona and Oregon in conference play.
But the team’s six-match run through the NCAA tournament was on another plane of existence. In the final, powerhouse UNC, playing basically at home in Cary, N.C., seemingly locked up the championship when it went up 2-0 in the 75th minute.
“I feel like it sucked in the moment, but our team never lost hope,” Fontes said. “We never really panicked at all, I don’t think. And then I had the ball that popped out to the top of the box, and the only thing I could tell myself was ‘just get it on frame, just get on frame.’ And that’s what I did, and Lexi (Wright) followed it up. So, I think once that happened, I was fully confident (in the comeback).”
At that point, she thought back to team training sessions simulating a one-goal deficit with 10 minutes to play — the exact amount of time remaining in regulation.
Reilyn Turner stuck an iconic header off a corner kick with 17 seconds left to send it to overtime, and the wild celebration touched off a few minutes after Maricarmen Reyes scored a rebound goal in the 107th minute, just a few minutes before it would've gone to dreaded penalty kicks.
One of the best parts? Fontes’ parents and sister had traveled all the way there to see it happen.
In the weeks since, there have been Rose Parades and mid-game tributes.
Fontes, a senior with a remaining year of eligibility, told Spectrum News on Dec. 29 that after initial unsureness about whether to turn pro, she decided to return to UCLA for another season. Her teammates Lauren Brzycky and Madilyn Desiano went on to be taken in the National Women's Soccer League draft.
“I kept telling my parents and coaches, ‘If we win the national championship, I’m out,’” she said with a laugh several days before making up her mind. “But I think it was all talk.”
She's now on to a master's program after attaining her undergraduate degree in sociology.
Both of UCLA’s women’s soccer titles have featured a Hawaii player; Kamehameha alumna Caprice Dydasco was a defender on the Bruins’ 2013 squad.
Asked about her visibility and place among the Hawaii youth soccer community, Fontes said she hoped to inspire the next standout.
“Caprice did it with UCLA in 2013. And then for me to bring it back home in 2022 is just surreal,” Fontes said. “For the little girls and boys out there, I mean, I’m happy to be someone who can kind of pave the way and they’re able to look up to me. I just hope that they know they can do anything they set their mind to … if they work hard and do all the right things.”
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.