Former SHS star Emma Thielbahr inks commitment to University of San Diego

BRADENTON, Fla. — Emma Thielbahr is a long way from Sandpoint — 2,883.7 miles to be exact.

But all the sacrifices she made for the game she loves paid off Wednesday when Thielbahr signed her National Letter of Intent to play soccer at the University of San Diego next fall.

Bulldog fans were treated to Thielbahr's talent and dominance on the backline in 2019 when she helped push Sandpoint girls soccer to its eighth state title. The centerback earned all-league and all-state honors that season and was already showing signs of a bright future in the sport.

But in the spring of 2020 she was presented with an opportunity that would completely change her life, and she took the leap of faith to attend the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. She is now in the midst of her second and final year at IMG.

"I missed my family and I still do miss my family a lot," she said, "but it was really worth it for me to be here and learn and get better."

The IMG Academy is "one of the world's most prestigious boarding schools," and the school seeks student-athletes "who have a strong commitment to academics, athletics and personal growth." Thielbahr checks all of those boxes and after her club soccer season in Spokane was shut down by COVID-19 in 2020, she jumped at the chance to join the program.

"I had an opportunity to go play soccer at IMG and get better and play with some of the best athletes in the country and it was something I could not pass up," she said.

Thielbahr had aspirations of playing Division I soccer and she knew the academy had the resources and track record to make that dream a reality. Over the last five years, the girls soccer program at the IMG Academy has had 111 athletes earn Division I commitments.

Thielbahr arrived on campus and shined in a starting spot at centerback all of last year, helping her team at IMG allow only five goals against them all season. She is continuing to be just as dominant this year and she said getting a chance to play with teammates that are now staring at Division I programs across the U.S. has helped improve her game tremendously.

"We all push each other to be better," she said. "I'm surrounded by athletes and people who have the same goals as me."

Thielbahr was born in Spokane and moved to Sandpoint in the fall of 2016 as a seventh grader with her older brother, Max, and parents, Jason and Kelly. Max graduated from Sandpoint last year and is currently on the baseball team at Occidental College. Jason and Kelly are also SHS grads, and Jason played baseball at Occidental as well. Kelly is the sister of current Sandpoint head football coach Ryan Knowles.

Clearly, sports run deep in the family and Thielbahr is the latest in that lineage, but her interest in the pitch is something new. She is the first person in her family to play soccer and once she got in it, she was stuck with it for good.

"My passion for soccer has just always been there, it's not really explainable," she said.

When Thielbahr uprooted her life last year, she didn't realize the significance of what she did until about halfway through her first season at the IMG Academy. She moved to a place she had never been to before, dormed with someone she had never met and joined a team she had no connections with. It was certainly a scary adjustment, Thielbahr said, and the demands in the classroom and on the pitch were unlike anything she had experienced before.

"It's a big step," she said.

But deciding to attend the IMG Academy allowed her to receive a scholarship from the University of San Diego, a private school in the heart of an area Thielbahr and her family know pretty well. And that familiarity and being close to loved ones helped sway her toward USD.

"San Diego for me has always been like a second home," she said. "I've always wanted to be on the West Coast and be somewhere warm."

Thielbahr had plenty of Division I interest and considered many schools, including Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., but San Diego was her favorite campus by a wide margin and was the perfect fit.

She is still undecided on what she wants to study, but Thielbahr is chomping at the bit to get a crack at West Coast Conference foe Santa Clara University next year. Santa Clara won the 2020 NCAA National Championship and Thielbahr has her eyes set on bringing a conference title to San Diego during her career.

After college, Thielbahr wants to continue her soccer career and play professionally overseas.

"I always want to keep soccer a part of my life," she said, "and I feel like I have the tools to play at even a higher level

Obviously, the Sandpoint Bulldogs have missed the presence of the 5-foot-11 centerback over the past two seasons, but Thielbahr has stayed in touch with the team and even texted head coach Conor Baranski after the team's heartbreaking regional championship defeat to Moscow. She said she was proud of the way the Bulldogs competed this fall and enjoyed every second she had on the team.

Thielbahr said she is grateful that she got a chance to grow up in the small town of Sandpoint, and added that it helped shape who she is.

"It always has a place in my heart and I come back all the time to see my friends and family," she said.

When Thielbahr was in middle school, a teacher told her no one in Sandpoint goes anywhere with soccer, especially Division I. She proved them wrong and she had a message for any girl in the area thinking about becoming a Division I soccer player.

"Anything is possible if you put your mind to it and you want it enough," she said.