Megan Boehm is never home for the holidays anymore.
As soon as school lets out for a few days, she leaves town to play soccer. Christmas day, Boehm catches a plane for Miami and the Junior Orange Bowl invitational with her club team, the Columbia Spirit.
Over Thanksgiving weekend, she competed at an inter-regional tournament in Boca Raton, Fla. Last Easter, Boehm made her first international tour with an under-17 regional team in London and Paris.
"[Being away for the holidays] was a change at first, but once you get to know the team, it's OK," said Boehm. "It's different from being with your family, but it's a different kind of family."
Celebrating holidays away from her parents and sister Andrea, 19, is a sacrifice Boehm is willing to make. She has to if she wants to remain one of the country's top young goalkeepers.
Her Thanksgiving trip resulted in selection as an All-American by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. The under-17 national team keeper also is an under-20 national team pool player.
"Being at the national level and playing up, because she's really only 17, demonstrates physical attributes that allow her to play with older players," said Mike Curry, who has coached Boehm for three years at the UMBRO Goalkeeping Academy in Columbia.
"After the Olympics and the World Cup year when she's a freshman in college, if she stays healthy and keeps working, she could make a run for [the national] pool," he said. "She has all the tools she needs. The only thing she's missing is playing experience and that will come with time."
Although only a junior at Howard High, Boehm already is a top college prospect. She has so impressed college coaches that two have told Curry that if Boehm could skip her senior year in high school, they would put her in their starting lineup right away.
She began drawing a lot of attention at last winter's Orange Bowl tournament.
Even with an under-19 game in progress on a nearby field, a group of college coaches assembled to watch Boehm warm up for a Spirit under-17 game. Boehm got a little nervous under the scrutiny, said Curry, "so we walked two soccer fields down to warm up, and all those coaches packed up their gear and followed us. I told her, 'You've got to get used to that. You're a star.' "
A goalkeeper for nine years, Boehm first earned a spot in an Olympic Development Program regional pool in 1993 at under-16. She might have made it the year before except for a freak accident, a kick in the face, that left her with an eye injury and forced her to miss the regional camp.
At 5-11, Boehm's greatest strength is in the air. "I can be six paces away from her throwing the ball at her as hard as I can and she picks it out of the air as if I'm just tossing it to her," said Curry. "Megan has incredible upper body strength and one of the best verticals of any girl I've worked with. And she has great hands."
Boehm estimates that she works about 13 hours a week with Curry, with the Spirit and on her own to sharpen her skills, but she has not played for Howard since her freshman season. Conflicts between her training schedule and the high school schedule could not be worked out, so Boehm opted to devote her time to training to become a stronger national-level player.
"It was the most extremely hard choice I've ever had to make," said Boehm. "It was an opportunity to grow and I didn't want to sacrifice a chance to grow, to get up to the next level. I didn't regret it, but I missed being around my friends and spending time with them. It was the better choice for me then and it is now."
Even with her busy soccer schedule, Boehm finds time to play basketball and tennis for Howard.
Although Boehm has to miss a handful of games each year, including the Lions' appearance in next week's Liberty Belle Tournament, Howard coach Craig O'Connell is willing to accept the time she can devote to basketball.
"How can you tell a kid with the opportunities she has that she has to choose? What do you think she's going to chose?" said O'Connell. "With all these tournaments she plays in Europe and wherever she might go, it's so unreal to most of us that we can't fully appreciate it. Because of that, I feel fortunate she's willing to put the time into playing basketball at Howard."
Last year, Boehm's strong defense helped the Lions win the state Class 3A championship. This year, the Lions are 3-2 and ranked No. 10.
Although O'Connell said he always is waiting for the day when Boehm says she has to give up basketball, she said that is not likely to happen.
"If it was all soccer, I'm sure I'd burn out," said Boehm. "Playing basketball and tennis is an outlet. They're entirely different games. They appeal to me in different ways."