This Saturday is the Alameda and Rose Garden Neighborhood Night, and sjearthquakes.com spoke with Season Pass Holder and Rose Garden resident Meghan Hager about her story with the Quakes.
Soccer is a passion that Earthquakes Season Pass Holder (SPH) and Rose Garden resident Meghan Hager lives every day. For the past six years, she has served as a coach of the Women’s Varsity Soccer Program at Overfelt High School, and in her free time, she keeps up with the sport at the professional level.
She came to her first Quakes game with her boyfriend when the Quakes played at Buck Shaw Stadium. He had season passes with his dad, and she tagged along to see what it was like. She soon was coming to a lot of games, and in 2016, she bought her own season passes. It was the first time that she had season passes for anything.
Hager enjoys coming to Quakes matches for the entertainment value, watching professional soccer and experiencing the environment at Avaya Stadium, while also spending time with her boyfriend and friends. She has also found that coming to games has helped her professionally.
“I am always looking at how they are playing,” said Hager. “One of my favorite players right now is Nick Lima. He is such a strong defender. I tell my soccer girls to watch him and see how he defends the ball. It is not just watching for fun, you can learn from it.”
Tying into her passion for soccer, coaching is a natural fit. In 2016, her team participated in Quakes High School Soccer Series, and played on the Avaya Stadium pitch and used the team benches. There was a national anthem performance, the Overfelt school logo was on the video board, ball kids helped out and they took a starting XI team photo.
“Being able to see my soccer team, which are basically like my kids, able to play on a major league field was really cool. It is something that some of them probably won’t be able to experience again. I do not know of many other sports teams that do that.”
Growing up in LA, Hager loved Landon Donovan, and relished the opportunity to see him play at Avaya last weekend as the Quakes took on Club Leon. She came to Northern California to attend California State University - East Bay in 2008, and has been a resident of San Jose since 2011.
Of all the Quakes moments that Hager has experienced, her favorite was seeing Lima score his first professional goal against Vancouver Whitecaps FC on March 11, 2017. It was just his second game with the team, and he became the first Homegrown player to score in an MLS match for the Quakes.
Tommy Thompson is another one of Hager’s favorites.
“I just love that they [Thompson and Lima] are good people and good players. They’re role models for the young generation of soccer players coming up and show that hard work pays off.”
This Saturday, March 31 the Quakes will recognize the Alameda and Rose Garden neighborhoods in San Jose as part of the 2018 Neighborhood Night Series, presented by Wells Fargo. The Quakes are engrained in the heart of San Jose, and this series recognizes and celebrates the micro communities that make up the area.
