Athlete of the Week: Siegfried a joy for Sailors
Raising the bar for Newport Harbor High girls’ lacrosse takes a lot of hard work, but so does the school course load of Sailors senior Rylie Siegfried.
Senioritis? Forget about it. All four of Siegfried’s classes this year are of the Advanced Placement variety. All five of her classes as a junior were AP classes too, and she even took AP European History as a sophomore.
“Now they have it so freshmen can take an AP class, but that wasn’t an option for us,” said Siegfried, who probably would have been one of the first ones to sign up.
She has a 3.85 unweighted at 4.4 weighted grade-point average at Newport Harbor. She wants to go the pre-med route, majoring in biology at either UC Davis or UC San Diego.
So she defines scholar-athlete, but family is important to Siegfried too. One of her favorite weekend activities is babysitting her 2-year-old niece, Scarlett. And she enjoys watching the athletic pursuits of her younger sister Tauren, who’s a third-grader at Newport Heights Elementary and enjoys surfing and horseback riding.
“She wants me to teach her lacrosse,” Rylie Siegfried said.
Tauren would be wise to learn from her older sister, who is a co-captain for the Sailors. In height, Rylie has grown maybe two inches since starting high school, to her current 6-foot even frame. She stands out as the tall one on the field.
In terms of lacrosse knowledge and talent, though, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week also continues to grow. She’s in her fourth year on varsity and leads the Sailors in goals scored (20), and is tied with junior co-captain Katie Hendrix for the team assists lead with five.
“From the very first summer camp that I saw her, it wasn’t just that she was tall and athletic,” Newport Harbor Coach Matt Armstrong said. “You could tell she was more mature, had a real kind of winner’s mind set.”
Siegfried is definitely a leader for the Sailors (4-5, 2-0 in the Century SE League). She and the team, for which senior defender Jordan Rausch is another co-captain, have big goals.
They want to win league outright for the first time in program history, after sharing the title last year with Esperanza. And they also want to win a game in the U.S. Lacrosse Southern Section South Division (Orange County) playoffs for the first time.
Newport Harbor is going for its third straight playoff appearance. The last two have been tough in the 16-team tournament, as they earned the No. 15 seed last year and the No. 12 seed two years ago. They fell in the first round both times, to Foothill and Mater Dei, respectively.
This year, the Sailors are currently the No. 8-ranked team in Orange County. Siegfried is helping to lead the way. She also takes many of the draws, although she’s also valuable off the line if Hendrix or emerging junior Sarah Farley is taking the draw.
Siegfried has definitely noticed a difference in her own play, even coming off a season last year when she and Hendrix both made the Girls’ OC U.S. Lacrosse National Team and competed in Pennsylvania.
“I took more of a leadership role [as a sophomore and junior], but I wasn’t really confident all the time to drive to the cage and take those shots,” Siegfried said.
She credits first-year Newport assistant coach Kaleigh Gibbons, who played at Monmouth and currently is an assistant coach at Chapman University, for getting her to be more aggressive.
“Her directly telling me to go to the cage has been in my head,” Siegfried said. “I’m focusing on doing that more.”
She didn’t focus on lacrosse until getting to Newport Harbor. Growing up, Siegfried played club soccer, and she played field hockey for her first two years at Newport Harbor. But eventually her focus turned to lacrosse
“I wanted to put all my time into lacrosse,” Siegfried said. “Lacrosse was something completely different, and something super, super-fun.”
The Sailors can be glad that she made that decision. Armstrong said his three team captains balance each other out nicely.
Of the three, Siegfried is the one who most likes to just lead by example.
“I try to be an organizer,” she said. “I don’t see the need to really be bossy and loud. That’s not my style.”
She’ll continue trying to raise the bar for the Sailors, who have a big week when they return from spring break. It includes a league game against Esperanza on April 12 at Jim Scott Stadium, and the Battle of the Bay game at rival CdM on April 16.
“Regardless of her emotional state, regardless of the day, the team, practice or game time she’s always focused and ready to go,” Armstrong said. “I think the girls really look at her as the calm center of the team ... She’s the one who knows the game best and everybody knows it, so they work off her really well. They look to her as a role model. From a coach’s standpoint, she’s a model player. You couldn’t ask for anything more.”
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Rylie Siegfried
Born: Dec. 21, 1997
Hometown: San Diego
Height: 6-foot
Sport: Lacrosse
Year: Senior
Coach: Matt Armstrong
Favorite food: Steak
Favorite movie: “Toy Story” series
Favorite athletic moment: When Newport Harbor rallied for a 9-6 win at Chaminade earlier this season.
Week in review: Siegfried scored a combined six goals in seven shots, as Newport Harbor began league with wins at El Dorado (14-5) and Yorba Linda (7-3).
