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Wynn Award: Camdenton goalkeeper Monique (Willcut) Begley

Monique Begley

Her name is still among the leaders in Missouri high school soccer history, and soon former Camdenton Lakers goalkeeper Monique (Willcut) Begley will be recognized by the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

A 2002 graduate, Begley is among seven former high school and college athletes to be recognized with the inaugural Wynn Awards at the Hall’s third annual Women’s Sports Luncheon presented by the Bee Payne-Stewart Foundation. The luncheon is at 11 a.m. March 23 at the University Plaza Convention Center in Springfield.

The luncheon includes the induction of College of the Ozarks’ Dora Quinn Arney Meikle, Drury University’s Barbara Cowherd, University of Missouri volleyball coaches Wayne and Susan Kreklow and the 1975-1976 Licking High School volleyball team, the first to win a volleyball state championship. For tickets, call 417-889-3100.

The Wynn Awards are named after Dr. Mary Jo Wynn, the pioneer of women’s athletics at Missouri State University and the first woman to be honored by the Hall as a Missouri Sports Legend, in 2014. Begley is quick to point out that it was her coach and teammates who put her in position to have success.

“We played every game together, trained together and grew up together. We pushed each other and supported each other,” Begley said. “I never would have played as well without them.”

Monique Begley-2

Begley was a premier high school goalkeeper in the state as she started on varsity at Camdenton High School from 1999 to 2002. Begley established – and still holds – state soccer records in solo shutouts, both career and individual single-season. (Solo shutouts are those in which the team didn’t platoon goalkeepers during the game.) She had 54 solo shutouts in 89 games from 1999 to 2002. That figure ranks 19th nationally. Begley had 17 solo shutouts alone in 2002, covering 25 games.

Her play helped Camdenton finish second in districts twice. Begley was a first team All-District, All-Ozark Conference and Goalie of the Year in District 11 in 2002, when the team scored a program-record 100 goals and earned 19 wins. However, she credits teammates such as Katherine Minx, Erica Roberts, Lindsey Vize and Christina Landsbury as well as coach J.D. Hunter.

“There are 10 other players on the field. More often than not, my teammates stopped the ball before it ever got to me,” Begley said. “We were a tight team led by a coach (J.D, Hunter) that we loved and admired and longed to make him proud of us. We weren’t exceptionally great soccer players. We were just good athletes who put everything we had into winning.”

Begley went on serve six years in the Air Force, where she guarded nuclear weapons and monitored base installation security systems. She is now an administrator at Lake Christian Academy in Sunrise Beach.

“I loved the feeling of being part of a team and looking out for each other, and that’s part of the reason I loved the military,” Begley said. “I had teammates there too.”

The Wynn Awards feature: Missouri State field hockey standout Marjorie (DeMarino) Bankovich; Camdenton High School soccer standout Monique (Willcut) Begley; Springfield Catholic High School hurdles champion Angie (Bullock) Homeyer; Monett High School basketball and track standout Angela (Beckett) Johnson; Springfield angler Julie Martin; Lebanon High School/Mizzou golfer Kerry (Speaker) North; and Jamie Vest, a cross country standout from Stoutland and Missouri State University.

Individual tickets are only $40 and can purchased by calling 417-889-3100. Tables of eight are $400, and sponsorships and congratulatory ads also are available.