The Michigan native left her home state to come play for Indiana in 2021, and has not looked back since.
Graduate student Paige Webber has been a focal point for the Indiana Hoosiers this season. She’s shown herself to be a true leading member for the team and an asset in scoring for a now more dangerous Indiana offense, especially when it is needed most. She’s a piece of this season's recognized senior group that is helping build the team up, head coach Erwin van Bennekom said.
After gaining a spot on the Big Ten Women’s Soccer Players to Watch preseason list despite her team being ranked last in the polls, it’s only been all the more motivation in the journey to help the team redeem itself in her final season.
Life before Indiana
It all started when Webber was just three years old. She played on an American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) team in her home town of Grand Blanc, Michigan. From there she grew a love for the sport. As with many other kids, Webber dabbled in other sports growing up including gymnastics, basketball and bowling.
But she never lost her passion for playing soccer. She said she knew going into freshman year of high school that she’d want to play in college. Webber joined national travel teams and even led her high school to a few state finals to help get her there — all with her sister Faith by her side.
“We played all of our lives together,” Webber said.
She describes herself as a homebody, so staying in Michigan to play soccer was a no-brainer, but it came as a shock to the family of lifelong Michigan fans when their eldest daughter decided that she wanted to become a Spartan.
“It just felt right in the moment,” Webber said.
However, after just one season with the Spartans, Webber decided to join the transfer portal to look for a new team. She said ultimately the decision was a reflection on why exactly she chose to go to Michigan State — the team Indiana hosts Thursday night — in the first place. And that she needed some new change away from home.
The new beginning
Since joining Indiana, Webber has been with the team through a lot. In 2022, the Hoosiers went 3-7-7 overall and only scored 11 goals total. It was a season that's dubbed far from successful and one that nobody wanted to see repeated.
That led into low preseason poll rankings for the team this year as they tied for last in the Big Ten. Webber and her teammates didn’t let outside opinions define them.
“We actually have screenshots of the rankings in our locker room,” Webber said.
The team uses it as motivation, to remind them of what people think about their team and how they don't want a repeat. And that is exactly what they have done so far. A whopping 27 goals on the season already sets them well past the 11 put up last year. Webber is already responsible for 11 of them on her own. One was a last-chance goal against historically strong Rutgers in the Big Ten opener.
So far Webber's efforts have been recognized with awards from Big Ten, Top Drawer Soccer and the NCAA.
When asked what's different this year, she said that her goal personally before the start of the season was to do better statistically and for the team. She didn't want to take her last season, potentially ever, for granted. Webber described that she and her teammates always had a goal of winning — it's just a matter of how they get there. It’s all about winning the next game, she said.
“If we run into a loss, we're never daunted,” Webber said. “It's our Indiana thing.”
A decision to return
This past offseason, Webber had a choice about whether to even play this season. But it didn't take her long when she thought about using her fifth year of eligibility — she knew what she wanted to do.
“I’ve never not been an athlete,” Webber said.
Coming back to finish out her eligibility was a choice that Webber felt was right. She talked about how being an athlete, especially a college athlete, is not easy and not for everyone. There is not always praise and the seasons can be long. Her freshman and sophomore years she would count down the days till it was over, a decision she regrets now.
“I always tell people that when they have the fifth year option to take it, because you're only a college athlete once in your life,” Webber said. “After this year you could be done forever.”
Being a college athlete to Webber has really shaped her as a person and been the most fun she's ever had, and she wants to pass that message on to aspiring athletes.
“Never take it for granted, even though it’s gonna be hard,” Webber said.
Life after soccer
With half of the season already completed and conference play plus potential tournament berths to go, there's a new type of future for Webber to think about. For the past five years it was about spending the offseason conditioning and training for the next fall. But this year she could potentially be hanging up her cleats for good. She already has one path in mind.
“Retire here, go to nursing school, watch soccer on TV and that would be it,” Webber said.
And yet there's still something about the game that Webber can't give up.
“It's too early to know, but maybe (I will) go to the draft and try out with a team,” Webber said. “I would not want to go overseas, just stay and play in the NWSL.”
With a lifelong dedication to the sport it can be tough for an athlete to decide when to be done, especially one that carries the dedication, drive and talents of Webber. However, with the rest of the season looming and the opportunity to keep raising the bar like she has been, the draft sits in the back of her mind.
Whichever path she chooses, there is no doubt that soccer is never going to be a thing of the past for Paige Webber.
