Glue Gal: Dougherty Howard is in the Middle of it All for Gators
Thursday, October 2, 2014 | Soccer
RJ Schaffer
Gatorzone.com Writing Intern
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- At the very least, there's always one way to know when Florida soccer player Meggie Dougherty Howard is around.
“Her contagious laugh,” senior teammate Annie Speese said. “It's a very unique laugh, and every time she laughs it makes me want to make fun of her laugh, and then [the team] says that I'm making her sound like a witch.”
It's good somebody has a chance to laugh at Dougherty Howard because she isn't giving opponents much to smirk about these days.
The one they call “MDH” is the definition of a glue player. Her contributions don't always show up on the stat sheet, but her influence on games is there and the coaches know it. She impacts winning with a variety of intangibles and subtle skills.
Gators sports fans looking for an equivalent? Think Will Yeguete on the soccer field.
Dougherty Howard, a 5-foot-5 sophomore from Largo, Fla., is the team's starting midfielder and therefore charged with being, essentially, the liaison between the offense and defense.
“I think she's just a very complete player,” UF coach Becky Burleigh said. “Defensively, she's really hard, but offensively she kind of keeps the ball flowing. A lot goes through her. It's hard to find a weakness in her game. She's a good communicator. She's just so consistent. That's probably her biggest strength.”
Getting a player like Dougherty Howard into the program required an assist from one of Burleigh's former players. Dougherty Howard's coach at Tampa Bay United, her youth club team, was George Fotopoulos, husband of Florida Athletic Hall of Famer Danielle Fotopolous, who starred on UF's 1998 NCAA championship team (even scored the lone goal in a 1-0 upset of powerhouse North Carolina in the title game).
Dougherty Howard had her sights set on heading out of state until the couple advised her to give the school in Gainesville a look. She attended a soccer camp at UF, where she clicked with Burleigh and found she enjoyed the possession-oriented system played by the Gators — a style that meshed with her strengths as a midfielder.
While she played virtually every position on the soccer field growing up, Dougherty Howard also was a diver and ran track in high school. This in a family that included an older sister, Kelsey, currently playing soccer at Fordham, and younger brother, Liam, now with the Tampa Bay United. Her father lettered in hockey at Colgate and her mom was a cheerleader.
“I always was able to play different sports with my sister and my brother, so that was fun,” Dougherty Howard said. “I was always around sports growing up so I had that competitive drive within me. ... [Soccer] was something that clicked, that I enjoyed doing, and I just stuck with it.”
Her physical style and seemingly endless amount of energy are two of the main characteristics that got her recruited by the UF coaches and gave them the confidence to start Dougherty Howard 20 games as a freshman and all 10 this season. Her next start for the No. 6 Gators (8-2, 3-0) comes Friday night when they pay a visit to No. 9 Texas A&M (9-1-1, 3-0), with whom they shared the 2013 Southeastern Conference regular season title.
Dougherty Howard learned how to be tough by playing in all-boys leagues until she turned 16.
“I was like one of the guys playing,” Dougherty Howard said. “I actually had one of the fathers come up to me and say, 'You play like a man,' which I think is a great compliment to be considered one of the guys on the field; to have them come in and play you like another guy. ... That, for sure, made me more physical and forced me to play quicker in a more creative environment.”
Vic Campbell, associate head coach of the Gators, was at the forefront of Dougherty Howard's recruitment. He said the fact that she was able to play with boys allowed her to make a quicker transition to the collegiate level because Dougherty Howard was used to the increased speed and physicality.
“Her transition was really easy,” Campbell said. “It only took her probably about a couple of weeks into the season. She has probably been one of our most consistent players. In terms of the performance rating that we give each player, she's just about one or two in every game we play.”
While she has earned the praise and respect of her coaches and teammates thus far, the real tests come sooner rather than later, starting with the trip to A&M, followed by three more SEC road dates over the next four games, including a Sunday swing through Arkansas, a team which reached the 2013 NCAA Third Round.
With first place on the line in the SEC, the Gators are well aware of what the Aggies will bring to the table come Friday. The two teams became quite familiar last year, with UF winning 2-0 in a regular-season contest, only to fall 2-1 to the Aggies in the SEC Tournament title game.
UF is also aware their midfielder is a year more experienced and getting better.
Maybe Dougherty Howard and her teammates will witchy-laugh all the way to another title.
“There is no limit,” Speese said of Dougherty Howard's potential. “She's two years in and she's already a key member of our program. The sky is the limit.”
