From the time she could remember, junior forward Georgia Whitehead bled crimson and gray. With her grandfather being former Washington State football coach Jim Walden, being a Cougar wasn’t just in the family genes it was expected. It was inevitable. It was supposed to be forever. But after two years in Pullman, Whitehead did something that would have once seemed impossible: she walked away. She now has a new dream, this time wearing black and gold.
“I’ve always grown up loving the Cougs, so that was a really fun opportunity to step into that role a little bit, but also create my own name for myself as a Cougar,” Whitehead said. “We’ve all been Cougars for a long time, so it was pretty interesting to enter the portal and decide to leave.”
“I wanted a fresh start. I feel like I had more to give than I was giving, than the opportunities I was given. So I just felt like at a new place, I would be able to give more and impact the team more. Coming here to Idaho, the environment, the teammates, the coaches, it made it a really easy transition.”
Whitehead a Coeur d’Alene native now takes the field with the familiar no. 11 on her back, but with a new team, new city and a place she calls home.
“(Idaho head coach) Jeremy (Clevenger) was one of the first people to try to recruit me out of high school, and it was already pretty hard to say no to him because I knew he was very passionate in what he does and that he really, really wanted me,” Whitehead said. “That’s super appealing as a player, that a coach really wants you. When I entered the portal, I had no idea what I wanted or where I wanted to go.”
After an early morning phone call from Clevenger and a visit a couple days later, Whitehead couldn’t say no to him again. Ever since Whitehead has stepped on campus she has been the player that made him call her so early one morning to get her to come to Idaho.
“She’s so athletic,” Clevenger said. “She we can play her anywhere on the wing, outside, back outside, mid, forward she’s so dangerous going forward, we’re excited to have her at Idaho and help our team in every way she can.”
After coming to Idaho Whitehead not only changed jersey colors, she also switched positions. After playing two seasons at defender, she switched to forward a position change that has paid off for Whitehead and the Vandals in her lone season at Idaho.
“I did play forward in high school, but I’d say it’s different than being on a D1 field. I have experience putting the ball in the back of the net, but it was definitely interesting,” Whitehead said. ” I feel like I’m filling a role that we really needed to fill, and I’m having a lot of fun being a player that’s putting balls in the back of the net.”
Whitehead has excelled at forward this season beyond the goals and assists her willingness to go at attackers, stretch the field has given more opportunities to her teammates and she has created issues for every back line she has gone against.
Off the soccer field, Whitehead has relished Moscow and its small-town vibe and has enjoyed much more than just her time on the field.
“Moscow is super lively, things are always happening. I love the small feel of downtown Moscow. Coming from Coeur d’Alene, it kind of gives the same feeling, and I just love that small-town vibe of downtown.”
From the moment Whitehead stepped on campus, she felt a connection with the coaches, the team, the community, and her teammates. Whitehead arrived in Moscow in the spring semester of last year and grew close to transfers Deanna Montero and Heather Squitieri, who transferred to the Vandals last fall.
However, her connection with transfer forward Calli Chiarelli started with a day at the pool and has formed into an inseparable friendship both on and off the field.
“Calli and I both transferred here in the spring of last semester, but we weren’t close until this summer,” Whitehead said. “We clicked instantly, and since then, we’ve been inseparable. She seems too much like me, like she’s, my twin.”
Chiarelli smiles and recalls her friendship with Whitehead.
“We started hanging out all the time together. We started doing movie nights with our little group. We just started going out together and having fun, and it was just great,” Chiarelli said. “When she invited me to her lake house for the end of summer, when we had our little break before preseason started, that’s when we got really close. She’s my closest friend on the team, and it’s just great to have that connection with her.”
Their adventures didn’t stop at the lake house. Throughout the summer and fall, the duo has explored Moscow together driving to the top of the world to watch sunsets from Charelli’s Jeep, organizing outdoor movie nights with a projector and sheet hung on the volleyball courts, and making the most of Idaho’s outdoors.
The duo, nicknamed Cosmo and Wanda by one of their friends due to Whitehead wearing a pink pre-wrap headband and Chiarelli wearing turquoise, has been the Vandals’ dynamic duo on the field. The pair has combined for six goals and four assists, with Whitehead grabbing three goals and three assists in a new position.
Before Whitehead was playing at Lower Soccer Field or the P1FCU Kibbie Dome, she was a girl who fell in love with the game of soccer.
“Soccer has always been constant in my life, everything around me changes except soccer,” Whitehead said. “It’s been my escape for as long as I can remember. Even when I was having a really bad day, I would always go to a soccer field, and I would be able to zone out and lock everything else out and just focus on soccer. It’s a beautiful game. It’s truly romantic. I’d say that even in the hardest times of my life, soccer has always been there, and it’s always been something that I can look forward to.”
That love led Whitehead to Lake City High School, where from the moment she walked on the field, Lake City head coach Matt Ruchti knew she was something special.
“Georgia is an outstanding human being, and you know, one of the hardest working kids I’ve, I’ve ever had the privilege to coach, that’s for sure,” Ruchti said. “When she was a freshman, you could already see it at that point that she had the capability of putting in work and becoming a collegiate player, Georgia had a high ceiling from the very first day.”
In her storied Lake City career, she was an instrumental piece of the Timberwolves’ 2021 state championship run as a junior. The Timberwolves came in as underdogs and came out as the champion of 5A and Whitehead, one of the leaders on and off the field, was a huge part of their success.
She netted 18 goals and added 15 assists, including a game-winner in the state semifinals. For her, lifting that trophy was everything she had worked for up to that point.
“We had a pretty good season that year. We came in as the underdogs, and we just took that tournament by storm,” she said. “We were all locked in. I had a game-winner in the semis. That was a truly amazing moment, winning state like that, raising that trophy, and being one of the leaders on the team at that time and being someone that scored a bunch of goals to get us there. It was super awesome, and it was one of the best moments.”
Whitehead came in as a 14-year-old freshman wanting to prove she belonged, and she walked off the field a two-time 5A Inland Empire League co-MVP a state champion in soccer and a 2x state champion in track and field after being a member of the 4×100 and 4×200 meter relay state championship teams.
She was more than a soccer player, she was an all-around athlete and that athleticism she showcased has helped her on the soccer field as she navigates through her college career.
Whitehead came to Moscow searching for something she couldn’t quite name. A fresh start, yes. A place that she wanted, absolutely. But more than that, she was searching for a place where she could finally be herself. She found it in Moscow with teammates who became family, in Chiarelli, her Cosmo to her Wanda. Whitehead hasn’t just found a new school or a new place to play the game she loves, she’s found home.
Jayden Barfuss can be reached at [email protected].