By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
After one more season, Eastern Alamance’s Abby Brinker, Meredith Doi, and Ryen Gibbs won’t be playing soccer together.
But they have plans for the future on soccer fields.
The trio of Eagles revealed their next destinations during a ceremony Friday at the school’s auditorium.
Brinker will play for Elon, Doi is heading to Division III Sewanee, and Gibbs is going to Division II Catawba.
“I can’t wait for this season,” Gibbs said. “It breaks my heart that after this season we’ll never play this game we love so much together again.”
Her father, Shawn Gibbs, will be in his second season as Eastern’s coach in 2025. High school girls’ soccer is played in the spring semester in North Carolina.
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The three players have been part of a special time for Eastern’s girls’ soccer program. The Eagles were Class 3-A state champions in 2023 after finishing as state runners-up in 2022.
Brinker was recently reviewing photos from her soccer past when she noticed that she frequently has a smile on her face.
“That’s the same smile on my face when I was on the phone with Elon coaches and told them I was committing,” Brinker said.
Brinker could reach the 100-goal mark for her career as a senior for Eastern.
She’s dubbed as a defender for Elon. That’s the position she usually played for travel teams.
Brinker said her dedication to soccer seems to have no boundaries. There were lots of sacrifices, so much that she said during her high school years she had a repeated response to many inquiries: “I can’t because I have soccer,” she said.
She’s thankful to Elon coaches for “giving me a chance to prove myself.”
Gibbs is a midfielder heading to Catawba, which qualified for the NCAA Division II Tournament for the sixth consecutive season this year.
Doi, who attends Alamance-Burlington Early College, is a defender. She has traveled around the country to participate in soccer tournaments.
She said her biggest adjustment after the spring will be moving ahead without Brinker and Doi.
“I wouldn’t have been able to make it without you two,” Doi told them.
Sewanee, also known as University of the South, is located in Tennessee.
For the three players, soccer began as 4-year-olds on the Pink Flamingo team in the Mebane Youth Soccer Association. Later, they’ve competed for the North Carolina Fusion travel program.
Brinker and Gibbs also are on Eastern’s girls’ swimming and diving team.
Coach Gibbs said the parents and families of the trio have been rewarded as well.
