These Hoosiers soccer players didn’t know they have a history

BY EILEEN BRADY
THE NEWS JOURNAL OF WILMINGTON, OHIO

Megan Holland and Jordan Woolums have worked hard to secure spots on the soccer team at Indiana University, a Division I school that has been a member of the Big Ten conference since 1899.
They’ve played together for two years in college, after participating most of their lives in various leagues and soccer clubs: Jordan in St. Louis and Megan in Cincinnati. 
They’ve spent untold hours together as Hoosiers, running drills, competing in matches, and traveling around the Midwest and as far as Malibu, Calif., and Tampa, Fla.
But it wasn’t until a couple of months ago that Jordan, Megan and their parents realized their relationship can be traced back almost 50 years to tiny Martinsville, Ohio, population: 462.
Megan, 20, is the daughter of Bryan and Julie Holland. Julie grew up on a farm outside of Martinsville, where she was known by her maiden name, Julie Cramton. 
Jordan, 19, is the daughter of Larry and Mickey Woolums. As a boy growing up in Cuba, Ohio, Larry was then known by his middle name, Keith, and is still called that by family members, including his mother, JoAnn Woolums of Wilmington.

Both Julie and Keith were in Norma Achor’s second-grade class at Martinsville Elementary School with my oldest brother, Jim Brady. (Oddly enough, 12 years later, my second-grade class at Martinsville Elementary was taught by Julie Cramton’s mother, Rita Cramton.)
Julie and Keith (and my brother) even took a detour together through the now-extinct New Antioch School, when a fifth- and sixth-grade building was opened and Martinsville students were bused there.
Julie ended up being the valedictorian of Wilmington High School’s class of 1976. Keith, whose family moved to Lees Creek when he was in junior high, graduated from East Clinton in 1976.
Julie majored in business at Miami University, and Keith majored in electrical engineering at Ohio State. Her career brought her to Cincinnati, eventually raising Megan and younger brother Scott in Mariemont. His career took him to Greenville, S.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; St. Louis; Chicago; then back to St. Louis, raising Jordan and older brother Josh in West St. Louis County.
Somehow their daughters managed to end up on the same team of 30 women recruited from top soccer programs across the United States.
“The whole Indiana soccer team is incredibly close,” Julie said. “They not only work out together, they socialize together, too.”
As they were growing up, their parents supported their increasing competition levels, as the girls played club soccer all over the United States and rose through the levels to elite.
Megan had played for Mariemont High School and Cincinnati Classics Hammer FC. Jordan, who also participated in field hockey, basketball and track at Lafayette High School, and played for the St. Louis Scott Gallagher Soccer Club, though Missouri athletic rules prevented her from playing soccer for her high school because the seasons overlapped.
Keith and Mickey were able to attend 19 of Indiana’s 20 soccer matches this year, only missing a match at Michigan State. Julie and Bryan attended all the home matches and some of the away matches.
The parents had seen each other at tailgating events, but their name changes, their new hometowns and the time that’s passed since elementary school gave little clue that they shared a history in Clinton County.
“You know, we all change since the sixth grade,” Keith said with a laugh.
The soccer parents were walking together at a preseason game this year when Megan’s dad asked Jordan’s dad where he was from. Keith told him, “I live in St. Louis, but I grew up north of Cincinnati in Wilmington.” Megan’s dad said, “You’re kidding!”
They all put the pieces together and figured out how far back the families went. 
“It’s an incredible coincidence,” Julie said.
In September, Julie’s mother attended a match at Xavier University in Cincinnati and brought along some old photos, including Julie and Keith’s second-grade composite picture, with their smiling 7-year-old Martinsville Elementary faces. 
Megan, an accounting and finance double major, plans to start her master’s in business of administration next year within Indiana’s Kelley School of Business, her senior academic year. Jordan, a sophomore, is studying criminal justice and psychology, to potentially go into law.
The family of another Indiana teammate, goalie Shannon Flower of Columbus, has told Keith that they know the McFadden family who farms outside of Lees Creek.
“I told them, ‘There’s 50 people in Lees Creek, and you know two families!’” Keith said.