Olivia Covello and Kieran Meehan both made their verbal commitments to play Division 1 soccer months before the start of their senior seasons. Two weeks ago the two local standouts made their commitments official.
Covello, Kearny’s versatile midfielder, signed her financial aid papers to play at Siena College, while Meehan, Lyndhurst’s star keeper, signed her financial aid papers to play at Monmouth University on the first day of the Fall signing period in ceremonies at their respective high schools.
Both Covello and Meehan said their respective colleges “felt like home” when they visited and agreed that being close enough to home that family and friends could see them play was an added benefit.
“I was very happy and my parents were very happy,” said Meehan. “They were trying not to cry and it felt so relieving to finally have it set in stone.”
For Meehan, the true sense of relief came in July when she made her verbal commitment to stay in state and play for the Hawks. The commitment ended a year-plus recruiting process for Meehan, who admitted there were times she didn’t think her dreams of D1 soccer were going to happen.
“It was very nice (having that stress removed) because before I committed, I was working on it for a year and I thought I wasn’t going to get my opportunity,” Meehan said. “And it was just a very nice feeling to know that I committed early and I worked so hard for it.”
Covello shared a similar sentiment about the relief of committing early like she did when she verbally pledged to Siena in May.
“It was so nice because I knew I didn’t have to worry about contacting coaches still and coming to my games and a lot of the legwork you have to do for the recruitment process,” said Covello. “It was really awesome to just go into the season just playing with obviously some pressure but not as much pressure with all of that. And I just played free and I played hopefully my best soccer.”
Alternating between a holding midfielder and a more prominent role in Kearny’s attack, Covello had eight goals and nine assists this season. A four-year starter, Covello finished her high school career with 23 goals and 24 assists while playing several different positions in the midfield for the Kardinals. It was versatility that Covello felt proved beneficial with her recruiting process.
“Being more versatile definitely helped,” said Covello. “I feel like with getting recruited, not sticking to one position and I feel like that’d make it a little bit harder and I don’t know if I’d be where I am today without playing all those positions.”
By comparison, Meehan only started one year in her high school career as a result of transferring to DePaul as a sophomore and then returning to Lyndhurst as a junior and backing up current Long Island University keeper Mackenzie Sibello.
Meehan made the most of her one season as the starting keeper, posting 11 shutouts while leading Lyndhurst to its most wins (14) since 2019.
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)