(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) l-r Twin sisters Sara and Rachel Noel admit that sometimes on the pitch they get a little snippy with each other, but it only makes them better. Forward Sara and goalkeeper Rachel will be a huge part of Woods Cross' success this season.
It’s fair to say that Sara and Rachel Noel have gotten used to sharing things with each other.
They share a birthday.
They share physical features.
They share food.
And clothes.
And shoes.
They’ve also spent their lives sharing the same soccer fields, but only in this case do the usually inseparable twins get to break away from each other.
“It’s quite the contrast,” Woods Cross girls’ soccer coach Dave Newman said. “You’ve got one sister whose sole intent in life is to stop the ball going in the goal, and you have the other one absolutely desperate to get the ball in the goal.”
When the two girls still were learning the game, Rachel decided it would be more fun to deny goals while Sara found joy in scoring as many times as she could. Their choices in positions proved to be successful for both as the identical twins became a terrifying tandem on the field.
While the two girls grew up playing a variety of sports, soccer always was a favorite. Whether in their backyard or at nearby Mills Park in Woods Cross, Rachel and Sara always could be found trying to best each other in juggling contests or a shootout.
“It was all about just going out there and trying to one-up the other,” Sara said.
“But then it would get heated and someone would get mad because they were being one-upped,” Rachel said. “When we were young, it would always end in a fight.”
Despite their competitive nature, the two sisters never would stay mad at each other for long. Even after Sara gave Rachel a microfracture in her arm with a particularly heated shot, all they wanted was to get back out and practice some more.
After beating up on each other in the yard, the girls honed their skills in the higher levels of club soccer, although both girls were forced into playing different positions than they had envisioned.
“I’ve kind of always wanted to play goalie, but my coach would always put me in the field,” Rachel said. “But our goalie [current teammate Olivia Barton] hated it, so one day at tryouts he was like, ‘Fine, you can go be goalie.’ ”
Sara, on the other hand, was pushed into a more defensive-oriented position.
“For some reason, they put me in the defensive midfield,” Sara said. “I hated it. So often I would push up and still try to score. I don’t know why I was played there because I didn’t even think I was good at that position. But ever since we got to 11 vs. 11, I’ve been playing attacking forward, and I’m much happier now.”
As the girls’ teams gained experience, they said they were too busy enjoying playing and winning with their friends to think about high school. But their mother, former University of Utah women’s basketball player Hillary Noel, could see what was ahead.
“We definitely thought about it,” Hillary said. “I can vouch that all the parents were very excited when we realized how good these girls were going to be when they got to high school.”
When the Noels reached the high school ranks as freshmen, Newman knew they were going to be a handful.
“They came in as freshies and were super competitive from the get-go,” Newman said. “But they were a little bit mentally all over the place as 14-, 15-year-old girls typically tend to be. But they’re not all too different from each other in terms of their attitude toward life. They’re incredibly hard-working girls and they earn everything they get.”
While that freshman class has proven to be immensely talented, Newman knew he had some special pieces in the Noel sisters.
“Rachel is probably the best female goalkeeper I’ve worked with,” he said. “She saves things that it seems like she has no right to be saving. She’s a very, very brave goalkeeper as well. When you combine those two attributes together, she’s very special.
“Then Sara has just got a pace change that when that extra gear kicks in, that overdrive, she’s gone. She’s just a real handful to try and defend. Somehow her dang long legs escape with the ball and you’re just left saying, ‘How did she get out of there?’ ”
Despite the praise from their coach, the girls acknowledge they weren’t always ready for varsity.
“I’m a lot more confident now than I was,” Rachel said. “I wanted to play, but I wasn’t as confident in myself when I started. I’d tell some of the girls what to do and they would look at me like, ‘You’re a freshman. I’m not listening to you’. Mentally I’ve grown a lot stronger. I’m able to bounce back after being scored on a lot faster. I just feel like confidence is such a big thing, and that comes with the experience and playing as much as we have.”
Sara said: “Confidence is important for me as well, but I think the way my game has changed has been key. Our club coaches would change a lot, so I had a lot of different coaches growing up. Each of them would have me work on different aspects of my game. Sometimes I worked at playing the 9 [attacking midfielder], sometimes it was more about holding or making different runs and being more creative. It took a lot of practice.”
Chris Detrick | The Salt Lake Tribune Woods Cross goal keeper Rachel Noel (1) makes a save on East's Haley Farrar (13) attempt during the game at East High School Thursday August 27, 2015.
After earning all-state honors and scholarships to Utah State University last season, there’s one last feat the Noels hope to accomplish at Woods Cross.
“Our goal is definitely to win state,” Rachel said. “We’ve come so close the past couple of years.”
But the girls know heaping pressure on themselves won’t help.
“We can’t get caught up in just winning state,” Sara said. “We’ve talked about making sure that we still have a good time and that the girls are having fun because that’s when you play at your best.”