IHS ‘98 alum Megan McKeown inducted into NYS Girls Soccer Hall of Fame

It’s a great time to be a part of the Ithaca High School girls soccer community. Not only have the Little Red gotten off to a 3-1 start—already matching their win total from last season—one of their greatest alums recently received the ultimate statewide honor.

On September 9, Megan McKeown was inducted into the New York State Girls Soccer Hall of Fame in Niskayuna. McKeown played five years of varsity soccer for the Little Red from 1993 to 1997 and went on to play collegiately at Penn State. McKeown felt a rush of emotions when she first found out she was getting inducted.

“I was surprised, proud, and really just overwhelmed at the honor of it,” McKeown said. “So few people get inducted, and it hasn’t been around for that long. Being one of the first few dozen people, coaches or players, to be inducted was just an amazing honor. The more time that’s gone by, [it’s] hitting me a little bit more of how amazing and important it is.”

McKeown flourished during her time with the Little Red, setting the program record for career goals (108) and career assists (72). She was also a three-time All-State selection. McKeown credits both her family and teammates for helping her excel on the pitch.

“I was very dedicated to playing,” McKeown said. “My parents raised my sisters and I to play all the sports, so I wasn’t focused just on soccer. I was a pretty well-rounded athlete in many sports. In our backyard, we always had a soccer ball kicking around or playing catch, so I think just the athletic mindset and background that my parents brought to our family was a help. And I was just lucky to be surrounded by great teammates. We had successful teams the entire time I was playing at Ithaca High School.”

McKeown’s record-setting output is made even more impressive because she didn’t even play for a significant chunk of time in high school. McKeown tore her ACL three times, keeping her out for most of her sophomore year. She even had to play through her injury with a brace on her knee during her junior year. She was back to full health for her final season after having surgery before the campaign. McKeown reflected on going through such a major adversity in her career.

“It really put things into perspective for me with maintaining my goal of still wanting to play in college and obviously still wanting to be back on the field for as much as I could in my high school career,” McKeown said. “I had a lot of success up until that point, and I wanted to get back to that. It kind of made other things in my life just seem less significant. I really understood the amount of work and dedication that it was going to take to get back. I had to sacrifice a lot of time and other things in my life to spend at physical therapy or go to that appointment, get to the weight room, then get to practice, still get my homework done, all those things. But it ended up being completely worth it.”

McKeown’s goal of playing college soccer was achieved at Penn State, playing there from 1998 to 2001. McKeown helped the Nittany Lions win their first three Big Ten Conference titles. The only year she didn’t win a conference championship (1999) was even more special. Penn State made its deepest run in the NCAA Tournament at that point, making it to the Final Four in San Jose, California. McKeown has fond memories of her experience on the West Coast.

“Almost the entire [U.S. women’s] national team was there, so it was amazing getting to meet all these women who had been our idols growing up,” McKeown said. “Just being around these women almost as peers where we had just been watching them on TV and growing up idolizing them was unbelievable. I will never forget hearing my name called when I got on the field and played. It was just absolutely amazing.”

McKeown’s story would not be complete without her two sisters. Her older sister Kristen played for Cornell, while her younger sister Alison had an extraordinarily similar career to her own. Alison broke Megan’s school records for career goals and assists, played at Penn State for two years before transferring to Cornell, and was inducted into the NYS Girls Soccer Hall of Fame in 2022. While McKeown only got to play with each of her sisters for one year in high school, they were both instrumental in helping her accomplish an incredible career.

“Going back to our childhoods, we were certainly competitive with each other, but also each other’s biggest supporters,” McKeown said. “I would say we were each other’s first teammates. Everything that we did was together… I could never have gotten to where I had the success that I did without both of them. They were the biggest supporters and cheerleaders in my life, going through the injuries and everything and really just being there for the entire journey.”