Peart more than just soccer
Don’t let that innocent face fool you.
Junior midfielder Dana Peart of the USU soccer team is generally a calm, mid-mannered woman, but once she steps onto the field, she’s instantly transformed into the tough player that has made her the top scorer for the Aggies this season.
The youngest child of five, Peart grew up in a home filled with soccer spirit, as her older siblings all played soccer. She said her parents were athletes in high school as well, so there is a lot of athletic talent in her family.
“Everybody’s played soccer in my family,” Peart said. “I’m the youngest, so I’m the spoiled rotten kid.”
Peart, now age 20, started her soccer career at age 5 playing recreational soccer. From there, she moved up to competition and then to club. While playing club soccer, she also started and played for the Box Elder High School soccer team.
But soccer isn’t the only athletic activity Peart has been involved in. She actively competed in gymnastics for six years, where she competed on a state level and on a national level in tumbling.
Peart said she competed in a sport that few have ever tried: the luge. She said she got involved in the luge prior to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
“My dad wanted to be a volunteer for the Olympics when it came to Utah and so he asked if I would go to a meeting with him,” Peart said. “He talked me into it. There were different meetings going on so you could listen to someone speak about the Olympics where you wanted to volunteer. We went into one room with a guy that did aerial skiing. He wanted to try me out and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to do that.’ He’s like, ‘Well, try luge.’ We went up and tried it out and then I started doing it.”
As if gymnastics and luge weren’t enough, she also competed in dance and various events in track, including the long jump, 4×100-meters, and 4×400-meters in high school.
Starting as a freshman forward for Box Elder, Peart said her team struggled while she was there, but she played well. Peart modestly includes being selected as Offensive Player of the Year at Box Elder and being named to the First Team All-State as her top high school achievements.
“I feel I played well but the circumstances with the team – we weren’t so good,” Peart said. “You can’t really show your top potential there, but I did the best I could under the circumstances.”
After high school, Peart checked out local schools Dixie, Southern Utah University and the University of Utah before deciding on Utah State. She said she was impressed by the coaching staff and the team.
“I’ve always wanted to come to a local school in Utah,” Peart said. “When I came up on a recruiting trip, I really liked the team. If fit me well.”
Peart was signed on late after Head Coach Heather Cairns saw her play in a college showcase that highlighted the top two players in each school in her region. Peart said this gave her an opportunity to truly spotlight her talent and it paid off as Cairns came up to her after the game and offered her a position on the team.
Not only did Peart land a spot on the USU soccer squad, she started the first two games of her career. Peart quickly became a key component of the team, finding playing time in most of the games her first year.
“The first season coming into college I was just really overwhelmed,” Peart said. “It kind of got to me a little bit. I kind of got calmed down a little bit during the season. Just lots of nerves, really jittery.”
Peart has played in every game since she started her career at USU. Last season she was second on the team with 11 points. She is also No. 10 on USU’s career goal list with seven career goals.
Peart said it is tough for her to balance school and athletics, but she loves it. She said the most rewarding thing about playing soccer is “the feeling of where your team is actually putting things together and you get that win.”
Majoring in physical education with a teaching emphasis, Peart said she wants to get married, start a family and teach high school P.E in the future.
Peart said her greatest achievement to date is “getting to the point where I can play athletics in college. That’s a great achievement while pursuing an education.”