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In early September, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced its semifinalists list, including ten students from Marion County. West Port and Forest have one apiece. At Vanguard High School, there are eight, including the county’s best goalkeeper, Gianna Meccia.
Meccia, a four-year starter for the Knights girls' soccer team, has stood out on the field and in the classroom. By the second grade, she thrived in gifted classes. When she took the pitch as a three-year-old under her mother's guidance, she excelled there as well.
“I feel like I’ve always spent a lot of my time studying, and I’ve always had to balance school and soccer,” Meccia said. “I feel like balancing school and soccer is something I’ve always tried to be good at.”
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Meccia has used academics and sports to reach national acclaim. Her first stint in the national spotlight came on the soccer field.
As a rising sophom*ore, she took first place in a regional round of the Keeper Wars, a goalkeeper competition where goalies attempt to score on each other in close quarters in three-minute halves. As a senior, she took second. Both qualified her for the national round of the competition.
“It’s a really fun experience," she said. "I feel like it helps me with my reaction time because they’re shooting on you so close.”
When Meccia describes what she sees on the field, her brain begins to fire. Her experience in the classroom shows someone with a deep knowledge of geometry and that has helped her allow a county-low 21 goals over the last two seasons.
She’s looking for triangles between herself, defenders, and her teammates.
“I feel like something in my math brain allows me to see lines on the field," Meccia said. "When I look at the field, I can see a line from me to the ball, and it really helps me set up my positioning so that I’m always in line. So if they take a shot, I’m always in the best position to get it.”
She reads the field so well it isn’t a shock that West Ham, a premier league soccer club in England, wanted her in their goalie academy.
If not for a torn meniscus she suffered her sophom*ore year, she may have gone. The doctor who performed her surgery warned her of the effects a long career could have on her surgically repaired knee, and it pushed her toward a bright academic career.
“The critical thinking skills I have are very effective for me to understand what I need to do and where I need to look if I get the ball or need to do something,” she said.
While Meccia excels on the pitch, test taking is where she shines the most. In October 2022, she took her first PSAT, scoring 1450 without studying. That score alone would qualify her for full-ride scholarships around the country. Add in a weighted 4.97 GPA (which takes into account AP classes), which is only an unweighted Spanish class from middle school away from a perfect 5.0, and she’s a shoo-in for a free education even without being a national merit semifinalist.
For most, they’d be happy with their near-perfect 780 score in math, but Meccia wanted to improve her 670 English score.
A few months later, when the school offered another opportunity to take the standardized test, Meccia read an article on English strategies to study for the exam. She left with a 760, that’s raised her score to 1540, 60 points away from a perfect score.
“I was pretty happy with that," Meccia said. "I didn’t want to waste my time. SATs are five hours, and I didn’t want to waste my time to get my score up by 10 points.”
Academics come naturally to Meccia. She’s not a deep studier but enjoys the challenge of homework. That hands-on experience gives Mecca the understanding needed to be part of the top one percent of high school students.
National Merit finalists won’t be named until February, and Meccia is feeling the anticipation bubbling. Luckily for her, she has her hands full with end-of-semester tests and is racking up saves as the Vanguard soccer team continues to go undefeated.
“It’s four months of waiting, which is a little bit stressful because I’m like, oh my goodness, am I going to get chosen?” Meccia said. ”I’m hopeful, but I’m not going to get my hopes up too high.”
