Girls' Soccer Player Of The Year: James Wood's Emily Denton

Posted: June 23, 2016
By BY ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — When she was healthy this year, James Wood senior forward Emily Denton was about as close to unstoppable as you can get in her return to the Colonels after a one-year hiatus.

Denton scored 35 goals, nearly twice as many as her own single-season previous record and the most by a Winchester-Frederick County public school player this century.

Those 35 goals upped her career total to 65, 20 more than the previous school record-holder. Denton also had 12 assists, making her the area leader among Winchester-Frederick County players in both categories.

But when Denton — The Winchester Star Girls’ Soccer Player of the Year — looks back at 2016, it’s not the statistics she’s going to cherish. She didn’t keep track of them this year, and considering that the career scoring record she broke belongs to her good friend and 2015 graduate Alex Stanford, it’s a bittersweet accomplishment for her at best.

No, what Denton is going to remember is that the Colonels made her wish came true. Denton decided to play again for Wood because she thought it would be fun, a feeling she hasn’t always had since she last suited up for the Colonels in 2014.

Denton’s passion for the game showed, whether she was recording hat tricks (something she did against every Northwestern District team) or playing through a debilitating injury that dramatically reduced her effectiveness for the last four games of the season.

"This is by far the best season I’ve had with this team," said Denton, who was named to the Group 4A all-state second team, the 4A West Region first team and was selected Conference 21 West Player of the year. "[My teammates] were all so great and supportive. I really couldn’t have asked to play with a better group of girls."

James Wood coach Jim Carden said while Denton’s teammates lifted her spirits, Denton lifted their spirits too.

"She’s just a pleasure to be around," Carden said. "This year she became more of a leader. She supported everyone, and no one worked harder than she did."

The pride Denton takes in her work ethic is a big reason why she starred at the high school level immediately. (She scored a single-season school-record 19 goals as a freshman and recorded 11 assists.)

It’s also part of the reason why she stepped away from James Wood as a junior.

After three years with the Winchester United — she started playing with United’s Under-12 team when she was 9 years old — Denton left to play with the Ashburn Wolves for two years. Denton then moved on to the team that is currently called VSA Elite (based in Haymarket) in her freshman year of high school.

With an eye on possibly playing soccer in college, Denton elected to play exclusively for VSA Elite and not play for James Wood in the spring of 2015. With the amount of time she planned on committing to VSA that spring, Denton knew her commitment to Wood would suffer.

"I didn’t think it would be fair to ask my team to be so lenient with me and ask them to give 100 percent when I couldn’t necessarily give 100 percent of my time to them," Denton said.

Denton has received plenty of college interest — NCAA Division I schools William & Mary and Delaware State each wanted Denton to play for them, with Delaware State offering a scholarship — but at the same time that college attention sometimes sapped some of Denton’s joy for the game.

"I will never regret a single moment that I’ve played soccer," Denton said. "I think for me, I just put way too much pressure on myself and started looking at [soccer] as a job rather than something I enjoyed.

"I was feeling the pressure of all these coaches watching me and feeling that I have to play really well to be recruited. I wasn’t playing for myself anymore. I was playing for those coaches."

As the winter of 2016 wound down, Denton decided to play for James Wood and have fun again. She revealed her plans on the first day of tryouts. (Denton still played for VSA Elite this spring, but didn’t train with them as much as she did last year.)

Carden refused to ask Denton what her intentions were about playing this year, even though many people were telling him he should ask her. He didn’t want to pressure her.

But seeing her on that first day of practice meant everything.

"When I saw her, I said, ‘Nice to see ya,’" Carden said. "But inside, I just lit up."

And then when the games started, the 5-foot-10 Denton lit up the opposition with her mix of size, speed and athleticism.

Denton scored at least one goal in 11 of her first 12 games, and recorded two assists in the game that she didn’t score in.

Some of the highlights of that stretch were four goals and one assist in a 6-4 win against Sherando on March 31; four goals and one assist while breaking Stanford’s career scoring record in a 7-1 win over Millbrook on April 14; five goals against Skyline on April 25; and three goals and the game-winning assist in a 4-3 overtime win over Handley on April 27.

But against Sherando on May 10, a Warrior player stepped on her right foot and she had to be carted off the field. Denton suffered soft tissue damage and a bone bruise.

Denton was on crutches the next day at practice. But with James Wood fighting for playoff positioning, two days after the injury Denton suited up against Handley.

Though Denton helped set up a goal in the first half and nearly scored a goal in the second half, anyone at the game could see Denton was not the same player. For the first time all year, Denton was held without a goal or an assist, and Handley won 2-1.

Still feeling the effects of her injury, Denton recorded five goals and an assist in James Wood’s final two regular season games — both wins — to secure a quarterfinal bye in the Conference 21 West tournament. But Millbrook defeated the Colonels 1-0 in the semifinals to end their season.

"I was probably about 50 percent," said Denton, of the Millbrook game. "It was really bad. The ground was so soft [because] of all the rain, so I was constantly rolling [my foot]. Just throughout the game, I’d step, and I’d feel sharp pains going through my foot. I couldn’t do the things that I wanted to."

Carden said it was difficult for him to see Denton so limited. But for all the spectacular things Denton has been able to do — Carden said Denton is one of the four people who have truly elevated James Wood’s program during his nine years as coach — it’s those last four games that stick out to him the most as far as her career.

"She was playing hurt, but she didn’t complain it about it," Carden said. "I knew that she was giving everything she’s got, and watching her is something I’ll never forget. That’s the kind of heart she has."

Despite the offers she’s had to play in college, Denton will not play because of her concussion history. (Denton will attend Virginia Tech.) She’s suffered "five or six" concussions in high school, and she said she’s still experiencing some symptoms from the last one she suffered last July.

Denton hasn’t had it easy with injuries. But considering they’re the result of doing something she loves while playing with people that she loves, she has no regrets.

"The reason that I love soccer is that it’s a team sport," Denton said. "Sometimes you don’t have enough energy in you to play for yourself, so you have to look at the people beside you and play for them.

"I was in a lot of pain towards the end of the season, and it killed me that I couldn’t do more for the team and try harder. But looking at them and seeing how hard they were fighting definitely made the pain worth it."

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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