When looking at game notes given to the media prior to soccer games, her name isn’t displayed prominently.

It’s not even on the front page.

Her name is Whitney Sharpe.

A former No. 16 recruit, according to Soccer Buzz, an overseas player, and current Volunteer Coach.

Sharpe is about as decorated as any volunteer coach a staff could have.

Her career started off at West Des Moines Valley High School where Sharpe left her mark. She finished her four years playing for the Tigers with four state championships under the leadership of coach Rob Chapman.

“She’s definitely right up there as one of the best players I’ve ever coached,” Chapman said. “What’s cool about her is that she was just as great as a teammate as she was a soccer player. She would stay after practice working on her game. It was the mentality of that class.”

Sharpe left Valley with 58 goals and 36 assists – which are both school records to this day.

Keep in mind, she did this while playing for the USA National team, as she did from U15 to U20.

Some athletes to her caliber might not spend a lot of time preparing for high school while playing at the club level, but Sharpe was all about it.

“She always played for her school and her community and helped us win four straight titles,” Chapman said.

After her high school career came to an end, Sharpe set off for college.

She settled in at UCLA for two seasons.

“I went from starting and playing 90 minutes to not playing at all and didn’t really know why,” Sharpe said. “I love the game too much. I made a rush decision to go to Lubbock.”

Sharpe transferred to Texas Tech, which at the time was home to Tom Stone – the coach of the USA national team.

She only spent one season with the team before transferring to Loyola Marymount to finish out her career back on the west coast.

After college ended, Sharpe wanted to continue playing, and was definitely good enough to. She went to Amsterdam to play with a professional club called Ajax, which housed men’s and women’s soccer.

When she got there, she was the hot commodity.

“My wife and I went to watch her play in Amsterdam,” Chapman said. “At the game we were at, she won most valuable player in the game. She had a ball she was going to give me, but she got mobbed by so many young fans. She was about as big as it gets in the women’s program over there.”

Sharpe would help Ajax win the KNVB Women’s Cup, a cup competition for women’s soccer in the Netherlands, and end that year with the most minutes played on the team. The fans overseas were taking notice, too.

“[We] watched people fly the American flag with her number on it,” Chapman said. “That was just awesome.”

With all of the experience, it’s easy to see that Sharpe has brought a bit of influence to the recent success of Iowa State’s program.

“She brings so much to the team in terms of her understanding of playing at a high level,” Iowa State coach Tony Minatta said. “She went through three programs so she’s had a variety of different coaches to deal with, experience in different environments to be able to relate to the players. She obviously played professionally.”

The Cyclones nearly made their second trip to the NCAA Tournament in school history last year before being snubbed.

That leaves the Cyclones (2-3-1) with some unfinished business in the back of their minds as they try to get to the postseason.

“I’m so proud of these girls,” Sharpe said. “Hopefully we can finish out on a strong note.”