Daily Pilot High School Female Athlete of the Week: Scout now scoring goals, not preventing them, for Sailors

Look up “feisty” in the dictionary, and you just might find a picture of Newport Harbor High senior Scout Farmer staring right back at you.

Farmer is the 5-foot-4 senior midfielder for the Sailors girls’ soccer team. She has undoubtedly been a big part of Newport Harbor’s early-season success. She scored two goals in the Sailors’ 3-1 win over Beckman in the Best in the West Tournament “ABCD” division title game at Newport Harbor on Dec. 16, helping Newport Harbor claim the title.

On Thursday, she scored the Sailors’ only goal in a 1-1 Battle of the Bay tie at rival Corona del Mar, assisted by a long throw-in from freshman Alyssa Sims.

Farmer, the Daily Pilot High School Female Athlete of the Week, has four goals this season for Newport Harbor (5-3-2), which is ranked tied for 10th in CIF Southern Section Division 2. The problem is, the team captain also has five yellow cards, coach Justin Schroeder said. Farmer picked up yellow cards in both the Beckman and CdM games.

She laughs about the yellow cards. Farmer said she thinks she actually has more than five of them this season.

“I really want to make an end-of-the-year video of all of the yellow cards,” she said. “How funny would that be? That would be the best video ever.”

On her Twitter profile, she has a quote from a song by rapper Fetty Wap, “I know my lifestyle is driving you crazy.” What drives Schroeder crazy is the yellow cards.

“We’re changing that,” Farmer said during an interview Tuesday at Davidson Field.

“Are we?” Schroeder responded.

“Nope,” Farmer said with a smile.

“I think we should,” Schroeder said.

But there is a certain edge that Farmer gives the Sailors, who are very young this season. For the Battle of the Bay yellow card, Farmer was arguing what she saw as an unfair foul called against freshman midfielder Reese Bodas, who Farmer said is her best friend.

Team captains Farmer, junior midfielder Sofia Velasquez and senior defender Ashlee Young all lead in different ways. Farmer is enjoying being in a goal-scoring position this season, after three years on varsity as the starting left back.

The Sailors lost their whole back line, as Farmer and sophomore Makenzie Trigo moved up, while Kat Peters graduated. Junior Emily Johnson, who would sometimes play center back, went to play for the U.S. Soccer Girls’ Development Academy. But Farmer said she’s proud of the new back line of Young, senior Andie Lee, freshman Jenna McConnaughey and junior Helen Coyne.

Johnson and program graduate Sianna Siemonsma, who now plays at the University of Washington, were on hand Thursday to watch Farmer score the Battle of the Bay goal.

“I do my best,” Farmer said. “I’ve always wanted to be forward. It’s hard being a left defender, because we don’t really use the left side a lot sometimes. I was like, ‘I’m over this.’”

What she isn’t over is high school soccer, and the Sailors can be glad of that. It’s a delicate balance with academics, as Farmer has a 4.2 grade-point average at Harbor. She wants to be a surgeon and is unsure if she will play college soccer.

“There’s always club teams I can join in college,” she said. “I feel like school at some point needs to become more important than being on a team, which I hate saying, but it’s definitely the truth.”

For the Sailors, the truth is that Farmer’s scrappy play is something that is benefiting the team. That’s true even if Schroeder, the second-year coach, was unsure of making her a team captain until right before the season began.

“The Sunset League, if you’re weak, you’re not going to last too long,” said Schroeder, whose team finished fourth in league last season but earned wins over league champion Edison and third-place Huntington Beach. “She gets that part, but it’s not something you want to condone, that this is the norm for Newport. That’s where we keep working with her about [the yellow cards].

“Sometimes kids are just natural leaders, and sometimes they learn how to be a leader. She’s definitely learning how to be a leader.”

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Scout Farmer

Born: July 5, 1999

Hometown: Newport Beach

Height: 5 feet 4

Sport: Soccer

Year: Senior

Coach: Justin Schroeder

Favorite food: Pasta

Favorite movie: “Despicable Me”

Favorite athletic moment: Competing in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoffs against Warren last season.

Week in review: Farmer helped the Sailors win the Best in the West Tournament “ABCD” division, scoring two goals in a 3-1 title game win over Beckman on Dec. 16 at Newport Harbor High.

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo