(Editor’s note: Throughout the school year we’ll be bringing you feature stories about high school athletes who maybe aren’t the most vocal, but lead by example and have gained the respect of coaches, teammates and opponents by grinding it out year after year. We’re proud to partner with Leeds Builders of Margate to bring you these stories of outstanding young men and women throughout South Jersey.)
By AIDEN SERATORE
Correspondent
For the first three years of Aniyah Parker’s time on the Egg Harbor Township girls soccer team, she made her presence felt as a defender.
But coach Pete Lambert — new to the girls team this past fall after a highly successful run with the EHT boys program — saw that she had potential in the offensive third of the field as well.
“She’s a talent,” Lambert said. “She’s one of the players most teams and everyone are aware of. I knew she was a very solid defender and the past three years she’s had most of her minutes as a defender, but I knew she was capable of more. I knew she could score goals, be creative and dangerous. My coaching staff and I, from Day One, were like, ‘we need to get more out of her.’”
“During the preseason after about three days, Lambert and (Phil) Maturi called me over to talk about having me in the midfield more, and I was like ‘Ok, but why?’” Parker said. “And they were saying that they’ve seen what I can do and they were seeing the potential I had with this team. They saw something that, at the time, I didn’t see, so it was a lot of fun learning a new position on the field, and you can tell in the film I was just having fun the whole time,” Parker said.
“There were days where she wanted to play defense, but we tell her, ‘you have to trust in your defense behind you, we need you to be in the box and control the midfield,’” Lambert added. “So when she finally bought into that she was a really dominant force.”
Parker’s presence on offense was surely felt, as her statistics skyrocketed during her senior campaign and her dual-threat capability was on full display. She scored 19 goals and added 10 assists, more points than any of her previous three seasons combined. Her previous highs came as a junior when she scored six goals and added seven assists.
Her efforts this past season earned her a spot on the All-South Jersey second team, as she led the Eagles to a 17-6 record that included an appearance in the Cape-Atlantic League championship game and a run to the South Jersey Group 4 semifinals. The Eagles also earned a share of the CAL American Conference title with Ocean City.
“This is probably the closest that we all were as a group, there were no cliques or anything like that. We were a group of girls with a goal and went after it,” Parker said.
Parker said the most memorable moment during her career at EHT was beating Ocean City her senior year, a first during her four-year varsity career.
“She was one of two captains and she leads by example, and being a senior and four-year varsity player she has the experience to win games, possibly from behind or hold onto a lead throughout a game,” Lambert said. “She has all the attributes to be a leader, on and off the field.”
Parker also is a member of the EHT track and field team, but that isn’t enough to keep her away from the soccer field as she practices and travels to high-level tournaments in the offseason with her club team, something she’s done for more than six years.
Parker said her strong work ethic is a trait inherited from her father, Andrew Parker III, a standout athlete at EHT High, where the Parker legacy runs deep. In the 1990s, Andrew was a star running back for EHT, and his talents took him to the University of New Haven in Connecticut, where he played football and met his wife, Neysha, a volleyball player for the Chargers. The family’s athletic prowess extends beyond Andrew and Neysha, as Aniyah’s brother, Devon played football for EHT before continuing his athletic career at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
“It’s about legacy,” Andrew Parker III said. “She knows I drive her nuts with my pride, I’m just that kind of guy. I’m very loyal and I’m very proud. I’m one of those guys to be an alumni of my schools, so EHT is always going to be my home. So it was nice to see my kids go to the same school and have some of the same experiences, and watching them compete wearing that black-and-silver, you can’t beat it as a father.”
Aniyah added a strong piece of that legacy, as her presence as a captain is something Lambert believes will add to the future success of the team.
“Out of the 14 freshmen we had, we had three on varsity who played quality minutes, and even started a handful of games,” he said. “For them to see a player like Aniyah and see how she plays, hard, relentless, with passion —that’s something that’s contagious for not just the freshmen, but also the sophomores and juniors coming back.”
Added Parker, “without our whole team buying into what our coaches wanted for us, we would’ve never gone as far as we did, so they were a huge part of why we did so well.”