O’Rear finds her home at Valpo
Naperville Central standout another Beacons recruit from the Chicago suburbs
Molly O’Rear attended a couple of soccer camps during the summer of 2018.
One was at Naperville Central, where she was soon to enroll as a freshman. The other was at Valparaiso University.
Two things appeared certain at the time. Naperville Central coach Ed Watson was sure he had found the elite goal scorer he had lacked for nearly a decade — and O’Rear knew where she wanted to go to college.
“She was what I had expected,” Watson said. “We watched her over the summer before her freshman year and I was very pleased with what I saw.”
Watson and O’Rear had to wait a bit, but both eventually got what they wanted.
After playing club soccer as a freshman and having her sophomore season canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, O’Rear burst onto the high school scene in 2021. She led the Redhawks to the DuPage Valley Conference
championship and their first appearance in a sectional final since 2005.
“We had to wait a little while to actually see her on the field,” Watson said. “But her junior year was quite a success story.”
Indeed, O’Rear tallied 18 goals and six assists in 19 games for the Redhawks (13-2-4).
Her goal total was the most by a Naperville Central player since Gina Maddi scored 18 in 2010 and tied with Maddi and two other players, including U.S. Olympic bronze medalist Casey Short, for sixth on the program’s single-season scoring list.
That production paid off for O’Rear, who earlier this month signed with Valparaiso.
“Valpo just seemed like the right fit,” O’Rear said. “I went to my first ID camp there the summer going into my freshman year, my first camp ever, and I went back this last summer.
“That really solidified it for me. I love the campus. I love the girls on the team, their work ethic and how they play. It was love at first sight.”
Valparaiso is one of many Division I schools
that are heavily recruiting the deep well of talent in Chicago’s western suburbs.
The women’s soccer team’s roster includes another Naperville Central alum — defender Abbey Hillman — and former Metea Valley star Nikki Coryell, the reigning Missouri Valley Conference’s goalkeeper of the year.
“Molly can play either in the midfield or up front as an attacking player,” said Valparaiso coach John Marovich, who also signed Oswego defender Sarah Epstein. “Molly plays with a great spirit which is infectious to her teammates.
“She gets as much satisfaction from giving an assist as she gets from scoring goals.”
O’Rear is a natural midfielder, but Watson moved her to center forward last season to boost his attack.
“I just felt like the skills that she possessed, it was a place we had to give her an opportunity to play,” Watson said. “She took the opportunity and certainly made the most of it, scored some great goals for us.”
O’Rear and midfielder Megan Norkett, who will be a junior, formed a potent one-two punch. Norkett, a Northwestern commit, added 10 goals and 17 assists.
“Coach Watson coached me up and helped me with playing a new position, which was really helpful, and my teammates were so supportive,” O’Rear said. “I scored the goals, but a lot went into the buildup of the goals.”
With as many as seven college-bound players on the roster, the Redhawks have high hopes for the 2022 season, which will be the last for the retiring Watson.
“We’re immensely excited for the season,” O’Rear said. “We’ve got a little bit of hunger in us.
“We know we could have gone that extra mile and gotten a state trophy, but this year we’re gunning for it. It’s coach Watson’s last stand, as we like to say, and we’re going to make him proud.”