May 24, 2020
OTP: Bria VarnBuhler
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Photos by Pomona-Pitzer Athletics
PROFILE
Education: Pomona College, Class of 2020
Major: Chemistry
Hometown: Santa Rosa, California
High school: Maria Carrillo High School, Santa Rosa, California
Position: Midfield
Club teams: Atlético Santa Rosa and Santa Rosa United
College soccer career at Pomona-Pitzer: 41 career goals and nine career assists, school single-season record for goals and points (2019). Helped lead Pomona-Pitzer to the most wins (20), highest ranking (No. 3), and first NCAA Final Four appearance in program history.
Individual Honors:
- Three-time First Team All-SCIAC
- Two-time United Soccer Coaches (USC) First Team All-West Region
- 2019 USC First Team All American
- 2019 D3soccer.com Midfielder of the Year
- 2019 USC Division III Women’s National Player of the Year (the first SCIAC player to earn that honor)
CONVERSATION
My introduction to soccer: “My mom says I started playing indoor soccer when I was four. I don’t remember that, but I do remember playing for rec teams—sometimes with my mom as a coach—and then being asked to play club soccer. My mom had to force me to go to the club tryout. I made such a scene.”
Why I love the game: “Being on a team and playing with a bunch of your friends. It amplifies the emotions of everything you do. The strongest emotions I’ve experienced in my life, good and bad, came from soccer games. That’s such a powerful thing.”
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Why Division III is special: “I wanted to be able to focus on academics as well as soccer and choose the major I wanted. Division III provides a better balance, in my opinion. Labs take up a lot of time. Sometimes I’d arrive late to practice, but my coach was understanding with all of us about academic conflicts.”
Soccer hero: “It’s not a person but a team: Liverpool. I love watching them play, the way they attack with crazy speed and numbers. I watch every game. I believe that watching Liverpool played a least a bit of a role in my development as a player.”
If I could change one rule: “I hate it when games are decided in penalty kick shootouts. I don’t have an alternative—you can’t have a game go on forever—but PKs aren’t a good indication of who deserves to win. I’m laughing while I say this because Pomona-Pitzer didn’t win a PK shootout until my senior year
Cool thing I did in college that wasn’t soccer related: “I love research. My best research experience started last summer. I was developing a biomarker—a compound that indicates the presence of a disease—for ventilator-associated pneumonia.”
Why I like chemistry: “It’s very visual and spatial. I loved organic chemistry. It can feel like solving puzzles. A lot of what they teach you in organic chemistry is the tools to create different chemical products. Once you know the steps, they can throw a molecule at you, and you can figure out how to synthesize it.”
Person, past or present, I’d most like to have dinner with: “I was going to pick Barack Obama. I love hearing him talk. But I have to choose [Liverpool manager] Jurgen Klopp.”
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Advice for someone about to start a college soccer career: “Focus on your teammates. Yes, fully invest yourself in your soccer, but really focus on relationships with other players. That’s so important. Not just for team chemistry and dynamics, but for yourself. When your playing career is over, that’s what remains — the relationships."
Next step: “I’m planning to get a PhD in chemistry at the Tri-Institutional PhD Program in Chemical Biology in New York City. After doing undergraduate chemistry and loving it, I feel like I’ve only just scratched the surface. I want to keep learning and do more research.”
How I’m occupying my time during the COVID-19 pandemic: “I’ve started working at an online tutoring company tutoring students in algebra, geometry, and Spanish. I’m finishing up Thermodynamics and writing my thesis. A little light exercise. And I’m trying to learn how to cook.”
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