Zumbro Becomes New Backup Keeper

Playing one varsity sport is difficult enough. Between offseason conditioning, early-morning training, long weekends on the road, and physically grueling matches, one thing is clear: the life of a Harvard athlete is far from easy.

While this fast-paced and demanding lifestyle may scare some away, others embrace it wholeheartedly. This is something that can be said of softball player Mari Zumbro, as the junior takes on a new challenge as a member of the Harvard women’s soccer team.

When starting sophomore goalkeeper AJ Millet sustained an undisclosed injury on Sept. 16 prior to her team’s match-up against Boston University, the Crimson was left thin in its goalie ranks.

But Harvard, not being one to collapse under adversity, has largely weathered the storm. Freshman keeper Jessica Wright has registered 29 saves in the five games she has started since Millet’s departure, helping the team win three out of those five matches.

“I don’t think that [the injury] has hindered or affected our play so far,” Millet said. “Obviously, it hasn’t been entirely positive for us. I think that we’ve done well.”

But despite Wright’s success in goal, Millet’s absence has created a series of personnel questions and concerns.

“Every soccer team really needs three goalkeepers,” Crimson coach Ray Leone said.

And with the loss of Millet for an unspecified amount of time, this has put Harvard in the uncomfortable position of having only two keepers on call at any given moment, forcing the Crimson to search for walk-ons who could at least temporarily fill in the gaps on the roster.

Though walk-ons to the women’s soccer team are relatively uncommon—­­­with only one or two attempts every year, this year proved to be different as Leone searched for a walk-on backup keeper from an unlikely source—the women’s softball team.

“I guess I got word from the softball coach that they had somebody that could possibly fill in,” Leone said. “Mari then brought it up to her coach, and then we tried her out really quickly, and it worked out great.”

The player Leone happened to stumble upon was none other than Zumbro, a utility player for the women’s softball team whose talents on the field range from pitching to the infield. On the mount, Zumbro posted an ERA of 3.28 in 2010 while batting a respectable .244 at the plate.

But Zumbro’s athletic talents also extend past the softball field.

In high school, she not only captained her softball team, but was also a member of the varsity basketball team and the starting keeper on her varsity soccer team.

Although Zumbro will be largely relegated to a backup role on Harvard’s roster, her addition to the soccer team poses some interesting questions about two-sport dynamics—questions about time conflicts, practices, conditioning, and potential injuries.

“Luckily [the softball team is] actually done with their competitive games for the off-season right now, so it’s kind of perfect timing for [Zumbro],” Leone said. “They just finished up last Sunday, so she’s done for a while. She’s still going to be working with them, with conditioning and some individual games, but we have her for a month, and we are really appreciative of [softball coach] Jenny [Allard].”

Even though Zumbro must adapt to a different sport and a new team in the coming weeks, neither the players on the women’s soccer team nor Leone seem particularly concerned. In fact, many see her experience as a softball player as an asset.

“The great thing about her playing another sport is that she understands what the Ivy League is about,” Leone said. “[She knows] how competitive it is and what she has to do to stay prepared. But the biggest addition that she brings is that she doesn’t have to go through the growing pains about wondering whether she can handle school and a sport at the same time. She can do it because she already has.”

As Zumbro takes on the challenge of being a two-sport athlete this year, one thing that remains clear is the level of optimism that others have for her.

“True, we don’t have a lot of athletes playing two sports,” Leone said.  “But…she’s played goalkeeper before, especially in high school. She has a lot of talent and a lot of energy, and she’s a great addition to the team.”