Claire Howard: Path to the Hall of Fame
Claire Howard at the crab feed Hall of Fame celebration (courtesy of Claire Howard)
Sloane Crocker, Executive editor
Claire Howard: occasional substitute teacher, Santa Rosa United Soccer Club girls’ director, former division one athlete, and Maria Carrillo High School Class of 2016 graduate and now hall of famer. She’s done it all, and she isn’t stopping anytime soon.
Howard’s career at MCHS started in 2012 as a student in her first year on the women’s varsity soccer team, and in the following four years she went on to become a star for the record books. She and the team won the North Coast Section playoffs all four years that she played for the school, and she said that she loved being part of such a “championship legacy.” When asked specifically of her favorite memory as a player, she said that she still remembers her senior year when the team was ranked first in the nation and traveled to New York City to play other top ranked U.S. teams.
Her time playing at such a high level was hardly over at this point — following the end of her senior year of high school, Howard continued on to play Division I soccer at the University of Montana, where she redshirted her first year (meaning she did not participate in official competition in order to compete for four more years after her freshman year) and then went on to pick up a slew of accolades throughout the rest of her career. Among these are Honorable Mention All-Big Sky Conference her freshman and sophomore years, second team in the conference her junior year, and Big Sky Conference Goalkeeper of the Year and United Soccer Coaches first-team All-West Region her senior year. As impressive as these awards are, Howard says that what she values most from her time with both the Carrillo and Montana teams is that she has found what it feels like to be “a part of something bigger than yourself.” She says that she learned that it is “cool to care,” both about the goals that a person has and the people that they achieve these goals with. Through soccer Howard “found confidence and gained a voice,” lessons which have applied far beyond her years as a high school and collegiate athlete.
Regarding her time so far as head coach of the Carrillo women’s varsity soccer team since accepting this role in 2023, Howard says that she is “deeply passionate about youth sports,” and she loves that she is able to fulfill this passion by coaching in the same program that she once played for. She deeply values the fact that just as the head coach “took a chance” on her 14-year old self and put her on varsity in 2012, the school then took a chance again and welcomed her back into the Carrillo family when she began her coaching career at 22 years old. She “doesn’t take this lightly” and loves that she now gets to help “young females gain experiences and create memories that they will take with them forever.”
It’s clear that the “chance” that the school took when first hiring her wasn’t in vain, as Howard has had incredible success as a coach in the past few years. Her favorite memory thus far is winning the State Championships in the 2024-25 season with what she calls “such a special group of players”; she feels that it was “so special” and “very full circle” to watch the team achieve such a feat with their best friends. And one State Championship is far from the end of what Howard hopes to achieve with the program. Regarding her hopes for the future, she says that she always wants players to leave having “loved their time, found their voice, made memories, and won some form of a championship.” She says that “when you take care of the people within the place, the results will follow;” every year her goal for the team is to win a championship, yet she feels that the best way for this to become reality is not only to “teach the x’s and o’s of the game” but also to “create a culture” that players “buy into and compete relentlessly.”
So, Howard has so far excelled on both sides of the game, as both a player and a coach for the Maria Carrillo program. It is thus no surprise that she was inducted into the Hall of Fame this year, which she says was “such an honor.” Howard was chosen by a committee who met multiple times, discussed, and eventually chose candidates, and in terms of the ceremony, the award was presented on the night of the annual Maria Carrillo Crab Feed. Howard and the other inductees gave acceptance speeches, and old high school coaches and mentors were also present and gave speeches as well. Howard felt that the whole experience made her “so proud” to be able to represent the school and sport in such a way. And, true to form, she made sure to note that while her name was “alone in this moment it was never alone in this feat.” But however humble she may be regarding her own success, it is clear that Howard is an exemplary Carrillo graduate on and off the field and a pillar of what it means to be a true Puma for life.