After a lifetime of playing soccer and 19 years coaching in the district, Oakville High School girls soccer coach Sarah Guenther has been named a soon-to-be inductee to the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame. An induction ceremony will be held on April 8 for Guenther and the other Class of 2027 inductees.

“St. Louis is a soccer capital of the United States, and there’s been many, many great soccer players that have come out of St. Louis and been born and bred here. The people that are in this group, that have been inducted into the Hall of Fame — they’re the greatest,” Guenther said.

She added, “It’s always something that I was like, ‘God, it’d be so cool if I was a part of that.’ … To be a part of that is so humbling, and I’m still in shock. I can’t believe I’m going to be a part of this group. It’s honestly probably one of the greatest honors I’ve had in my life.”

Guenther says her interest in soccer came early in her life, thanks to her father who played college soccer at Lindenwood University.

“Since he was a soccer person, I didn’t really have a choice. When I could walk, he was putting a soccer ball at my feet, so I started playing soccer,” Guenther said. “I played other sports, but soccer always took the cake.”

As Guenther was growing up, she was chosen to play on a club soccer team made up of boys. She says that being a girl on a boys team shaped her as a player, and that she was once told she “played soccer like a boy.”

“That’s how I learned — I played with the boys. That made me a little bit different,” Guenther said. “It’s something that you can’t teach. I have a certain grit, where if I’m going to get the ball, I’m going to do whatever it takes to get the ball. … I was always very tenacious and aggressive.”

Guenther continued playing the sport on club teams and at Seckman High School; after graduation, she went to play for Missouri State University, where she had a “very successful college run.” She was the first female athlete from Seckman to earn a Division I athletic scholarship, and she eventually earned a place in the Halls of Fame at both Seckman and Missouri State.

In both high school and college, Guenther says she began to expand her horizons beyond simply operating as a player. This often looked like sitting down and strategizing with her coaches.

“I always would analyze games with my coach,” Guenther said. “We’d look at film and watch players we were going to play against, and I would analyze it with them. I would talk about what formation we needed and who we needed to use there and there. That’s when I started recognizing that I had a knack for being a coach.”

Now, Guenther has spent almost two decades at Oakville. She didn’t consider applying for the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame until the organization’s president, Jim Leeker, suggested several years back that she should.

Guenther found out that she had been named an inductee when she was called from her classroom. Turning the corner, she saw her fellow coaches, athletes from her soccer team and Leeker himself to surprise her with the news.

“I saw Jim Leeker standing there in his green jacket, which is something all of the Hall of Famers get and something I’ve always dreamed of having, and I just lost it. I kind of blacked out, to be honest with you. It was the greatest. To be in the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame — it’s an honor, if you’re a St. Louis soccer player, you dream of having.”

She added, “To be a Hall of Famer in St. Louis — I’m speechless about it. I’m humbled to think the Soccer Hall of Fame Board believed in me and wanted me to be part of their group.”

Guenther is one of 11 inductees in the Class of 2027 Hall of Famers. There are approximately 1,000 total members of the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame — of those, only about a dozen of them are women.

“That shows you the difference in males versus females,” Guenther said. “But the males that are in this are the OGs. They’re the greatest we’ve ever had, and the girls are the greatest we’ve ever had. It’s something that everyone dreams about. You see them in parades, and they’re wearing their green jackets. You see them at (St. Louis City SC) games in their green jackets.”