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Opposing actions animate sport.
What other forces can so dramatically shape an outcome? They provide form and shape to soccer -- a game that often creates its own logic.
The only thing better than the normal back and forth between teams is when the process plays out on the same team.
New Trier’s 25-player roster featured contrasts and dualities; chemistry braided everything together.
“I think what I’m going to take away from my time at New Trier is the culture,” senior forward Charlotte Dellin said.
“When I was coming up, the older players and alumni used to say to always treasure my time here, because there’s seriously nothing like it -- not club, or college or anything else.”
Teams are not monoliths; they are not filled with identical players. In that range, players from very different registers grew into a state championship unit at New Trier.
At first glance, everything about Trevians teammates Dellin and Annie Fowler appear to be at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Dellin was a senior, and the precocious Fowler had just started her prep career.
Dellin, who is coordinating the next stage of her life and career at Division I Fairfield, and Fowler, who just wrote an unbelievable first chapter of her high school journey, are now bound together by their shared and remarkable play of the past season.
Let’s call their partnership in their only season together Fire and Ice.
Dellin was the animated, intense and fiery high-scoring forward. Fowler was the cool, preternaturally calm keeper who took part in something unprecedented.
The two collaborated on the Trevians’ seventh state championship team that culminated its run with a shootout win over St. Charles North on June 1 at North Central College.
Dellin’s 88th-minute header off a corner by Annie Paden evened the match in the first overtime.
In a riveting PK battle that followed the scoreless second overtime, the remarkably poised Fowler saved two penalty kicks and helped deliver a 5-4 spot-kick victory in six rounds.
Selecting the Chicagoland Soccer Player of the Year is rarely an easy choice, but this season was exceptionally difficult.
Even with a deep and talented team that included five college recruits (four of them Division I), Dellin and Fowler stood out as difference-makers for New Trier.
Now they are joined together in Chicagoland Soccer history.
Fowler and Dellin are the first co-recipients of the Chicagoland Soccer Player of the Year honor.
The teammates were chosen over a gifted group that included: seniors, Laney Stark (forward, St. Charles North), Roos VanRoekel (defender, Barrington), Anya Gulbrandsen (forward, Oswego East); Rebecca Schulenburg (midfielder, Wheaton Academy) and Jocelyn Leigh (forward, Evanston); and junior Grace Carman (forward, Lane).
It marks the first time on either the girls or boys side that players have shared the prize. Fowler is the first freshman girls recipient. Naperville Central's Chase Adams took the award on the boys side in 2022.
“It’s a great choice,” New Trier coach Jim Burnside said. “Those two put our team on their backs.”
Dellin’s dramatic final prep goal was her seventh of the state tournament.
She punched the Trevians ticket to the Final Four with a dramatic 74th-minute free kick against Lyons in the Dominican University Supersectional on May 28.
Burnside called Dellin’s tournament run “very possibly the best postseason in New Trier girls soccer history.”
She scored two goals against Niles North in the regional championship. At the New Trier Sectional, she scored both goals in the 2-0 semifinal victory over rival Loyola.
Her late, first half, free kick goal against city power Lane reversed the momentum of a game the Champions had dominated and led to an eventual 2-0 victory.
For good measure, Dellin had an assist in the 2-1 state semifinal victory over Edwardsville.
“I’m very appreciative of this amazing award, but none of this would have been possible without my coaches, my teammates or my parents,” Dellin said.
“Clearly with there being two Players of the Year from our team, it shows what a great environment we have, and that everyone is supportive of each other. It makes me really appreciative of my surroundings.”
Dellin and Fowler are the second and third New Trier girls players to earn the Chicagoland Soccer Player of the Year. Emma Weaver won the third edition of the award in 2019. New Trier is now tied with Barrington and O’Fallon with two such honors.
The Trevians swept the honor for the 2023-24 school year. Northwestern recruit Aidan O’Neill captured the boys’ award after New Trier’s run to the state title, which culminated with a 3-1 win over Lyons on Nov. 4.
New Trier became the first school since Naperville North in 2018-19 to win both 3A state championships in the same athletic year.
Dellin completed the season with 15 goals and six assists.
She got on a hot streak and rode the wave.
“The great thing about New Trier soccer is the last person that you are playing for is yourself,” Dellin said. “There was this idea I was playing for my team, my coaches, the program and not thinking so much about myself.
“Having that success just doubled my level of confidence, and just gave me the willingness to do whatever I needed to help us be successful.”
Like her closest friends on the team, seniors Annie Paden, midfielder Josie Noble and defender Clara Deliduka, Dellin was not immune to heartbreak and adversity the prior three seasons.
As freshmen and then again last season as juniors, the quartet was a part of New Trier teams who lost nerve-wracking supersectional shootouts against Libertyville.
This season, New Trier enjoyed almost universal success.
The Trevians lost only twice: in a shocking early-season 1-0 defeat at Class A state power Columbia on March 29; and in a 2-1 decision to Naperville North in the semifinals of the Lou Malnati’s Deep Dish Classic, which the Trevians host, on April 11.
“It was so rewarding for the four seniors who have been on varsity since our freshman year to come out with a state championship,” Dellin said.
Naperville North rode two goals by forward Annie Chang, which included a penalty kick, to take the Malnati's win.
That loss signified both an end and a beginning for New Trier.
With Fowler as the primary keeper of a sterling pair, which included junior Caroline Hague (unscored upon in 720 minutes), New Trier took every challenge from the best offensive teams in the state and stood them on their heads.
After their last loss, the Trevians faced elite offenses like Lane, Evanston (twice), Glenbrook South, Benet, York and Fremd and never yielded a goal.
The 17-consecutive shutouts erased a 20-year-old IHSA team record. It eclipsed the 16 straight by the Trevians’ 2004 state championship group.
Fowler registered 19 of the Trevians’ 26 overall shutouts. In 1,780 minutes over 24 games, she permitted just eight goals. Her 0.359 goals-against average was the best in the state after factoring in minutes played.
“She is just incredible, one of the most athletic people I think I’ve ever met,” Dellin said.
“I think the thing that sets her apart from so many other players is that she has so much fun playing the sport. We’ll be in practice, doing drills or choreography or something. She’s locked in, but she’s loose and having fun. She’s not in her head and worried about what’s going to happen.”
Fowler was a natural.
“I grew up playing a lot of sports, and the playing field was always very fun for me,” she said.
“Practice is my favorite part of any day, and I love just being able to fly around and save shots. With Caroline, my teammate, it’s great to have that community.
“I go to special camps, just for keepers. They make me want to keep playing it.”
Fowler’s youth set up the remarkable conclusion.
After the second of two goals by fellow freshman Addy Randle seemingly put New Trier on the verge of a 2-1 championship game victory, Fowler was called for an illegal touch in the 80th minute.
A keeper is not permitted to catch a shot, put it down and pick it back up. Awarded an indirect kick inside the Trevian box, Stark got possession and nailed her second goal of the match to send the title battle into overtime.
What might have been remembered as a memorable title game instead was transformed into one of the greatest games in the history of the girls’ state championship series.
After Dellin answered the North Stars’ opening goal in the first overtime, Fowler took over.
She was undaunted despite surrendering the same amount of goals (four) in the two-game state finals as she had leading up to that point.
“I made that mistake toward the end, and seeing us come together as family and all the work we’ve put together was so uplifting,” Fowler said.
Her first save in the shootout on the North Stars’ fourth shooter was essential because the Trevians had missed their previous attempt.
The second save, in sudden death, gave New Trier its first girls’ state championship since 2016.
“I’ve been in a shootout before, with club,” Fowler said. “That was my first time in high school, and it was a really cool experience.
“I love penalty kicks, so I was actually excited to be there.”
Charlotte Dellin and Annie Fowler are almost the inverse of each other: a senior and a freshman; Dellin up-top and Fowler as the last line of defense.
Together they stood, euphoric and proud.
“Every time I see Charlotte play, she amazes me,” Fowler said. “The goals are great, but it showed how much she cared for all of us.
“She wasn’t doing it for herself. She was doing it so that every game we had, we had one more game together. She knew every game mattered. She deserves all the awards she gets, because she’s one of the greatest players I’ve ever seen. Her performance this season was like no other.”
Chicagoland Soccer Girls Players of the Year
2017–Sophia Spinell, Barrington, senior, midfielder
2018–Samantha Schmitz, Barrington, senior, keeper
2019–Emma Weaver, New Trier, junior, midfielder
2020–No award (pandemic)
2021–Aubrey Mister, O’Fallon, senior, forward
2022–Jordan Lange, Metea Valley, junior, midfielder
2023–Kiley McMinn, O’Fallon, senior, forward
2024–Charlotte Dellin, New Trier, senior, forward; Annie Fowler, New Trier, freshman, keeper
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