Prema Budhiraja can be hard on herself, but there was a lot to be happy about last year in her third year on the North girls soccer team.
Budhiraja was second on the team in scoring behind Ginny Choi with 30 points on 13 goals and four assists, more than doubling her production from each of her freshman and sophomore years.
“I think that I gained a lot more confidence last season,” Budhiraja said. “I get my head and my coach especially kept me going and my team kept me going. I thought that’s something I lacked my previous years—confidence—and it was just mainly myself, like I was just really shelled in when I played.”
An All-Colonial Valley Conference selection, Budhiraja is ready for her senior season in which she again has high expectations for herself, and the Knights will look to improve on last year’s 9-10 season that ended in the Central Jersey Group 3 quarterfinals.
“Last year we played very, very good compared to how we played the previous year,” said Budhiraja. “I think we were all very comfortable with each other. Overall I think we played much better than our previous seasons.”
The nine wins were the Knights’ most since the 2015 season. North also went 5-3 in CVC play. They are looking to build off that under first-year head coach Taylor Mastropasqua, though she’s not new to most of the team or to North. Mastropasqua is head boys tennis coach at the school and has been head JV girls soccer coach the last three years. She’s excited to bring her vision to the program and help it continue to climb.
“I’m excited to work with the girls at this new level,” said Mastropasqua who played at William Paterson after a high school career at Hightstown. “Soccer has always been my passion, so getting a higher level of competition to work with is really nice.”
It means getting to work with players like Budhiraja who are plenty motivated to succeed at this level. Budhiraja has held herself to a high standard for as long as she can remember.
“I’ve always been like this,” she said. “I think soccer is like the one thing that I’m very competitive with myself and with everyone else. And I guess it gets a little bit too much sometimes, but I think it’s kind of healthy sometimes.”
Budhiraja’s drive kicked in early. It was a family passion spawned by her father and her older brother, Arjun Budhiraja, who also played at North.
“My dad was a coach when we first moved to the U.S. and he coached my brother and me,” said Budhiraja, whose family moved from India when she was a baby. “He made me fall in love with the sport, and I honestly followed in my brother’s footsteps. He went from playing rec to travel. I was playing rec and then travel, and he did middle school and high school, I did the same thing as him. I used to play basketball and track, but didn’t love it as much as soccer.”
Budhiraja played varsity as a freshman and sophomore, but last year was her breakout year. It was reassurance for her.
“Honestly, I think it was a surprise just because looking at my other two years, I was steady but I wasn’t scoring as much. And I knew that I can do better,” Budhiraja said. “So I was happy that I was able to show what I actually have in me and I’m able to score and I’m able to do this and able to do that. So it was a big surprise, but it was also a big relief that I can show everyone that I can score and I can play and I’m not just like someone who’s just put on the field, I actually deserve to be on the field.”
The big year sets her up for this season. It will be a senior year, and if she can recover from a knee injury that has slowed her over the summer, she hopes to be making a big impact again.
“I have very high expectations with myself because I do want to play well,” she said. “I want to score more than I scored last year. And if I do, I’ll be really happy. And if I don’t, that’s OK, but I want to play the best of my ability this year and we’ll see how it goes.”
She is part of a big three with Choi and fellow senior Julia Eckel. The trio anchors the team and a strong senior class.
“I think the center of the field through the three of them is really going to be vital this season and having them connect,” said Mastropasqua.
Budhiraja has a strength unique to the Knights. She is left-footed, a rarity on the team. That’s something that North hopes to use wisely.
“We don’t get many left-footed girls and she’s a lefty, so we are able to get her on the outside, left forward or that outside mid and have her make those runs,” Mastropasqua said. “She’s great with the ball. She’s great off the ball. She has great vision of the field and soccer IQ. So if I need her anywhere on the field she can step up and play, but I’ve seen her do really well at that left attack when we get those balls to her feet. We gotta get her working on the right foot, though.”
Budhiraja felt most effective last year when she moved to the left wing. After a slower start at forwaRd., she came on strong down the finish. This year, she’s looking to start and finish well for a team that has a lot of potential.
“I think the key is confidence, chemistry and also commitment,” Budhiraja said. “I think commitment is a big thing, because when you have commitment to practices and games, not everyone’s falling behind. I feel like we play better just because we’re practicing as a whole instead of people missing.”
“Chemistry is also big just because you don’t want to be losing chemistry on the field,” she said. “You want to be talking to each other, you want to be knowing each other’s runs, you want to know the way they play on the soccer field. I know how Ginny Choi plays. I know how she runs with me. I know how Julia plays. I know where she’s going to pass and everything”
There has to be continued widespread growth for the Knights to take another step forward. Progress has been something important to Budhiraja and the team. Her individual and their collective growths have mirrored each other.
“I agree 100 percent,” Budhiraja said. “Compared to my freshman year to now, our freshman year we were pretty good but our class, I feel like individually we improved a lot together. And I also just feel like even as a program we improved way more. We had our ups and downs, but I think we’ve gotten so much better from when we first got to high school.”
Budhiraja expects that progress to continue. She is showing she can raise her level again. She is trying to improve her game each practice and become a more dynamic player and better leader on the team as she gears up for the start of the season.
“A little bit more aggression, which we’ve seen just from these little summer workouts we’ve had,” Mastropasqua said.
He added: “She looks stronger on the ball, she’s able to fight girls off, she’s more aggressive on the ball. And she’s making great runs off the ball. So she’s getting into a position where she can have that attack going and help her teammates out.
“But again, her soccer IQ is pretty high so she’s able to control that field and guide her teammates to a place where she can be successful and score some goals. She has the speed. She’s tough and she’s aggressive.”
Budhiraja is looking to make the most of her final season at North. She stepped away from club soccer last year to focus on academics, which are also highly important to her.
She is interested in becoming a physician’s assistant. She has an internship and volunteers at two hospitals, which takes up much of her time when she’s not playing soccer or in school.
“I’m really passionate about healthcare and just building my career right now, trying to figure out what specific places I want to major in and everything like that,” she said. “I’m focusing a lot on my career.”
With school and soccer, Prema Budhiraja is maintaining high standards. While her career goals will have a little time to wait, soccer is right around the corner. It’s her final season with the Knights, and she wants to make the most of it.
“I’m really super excited to just play my final season and have a good season with my team, especially winning games,” she said. “I feel like we have really good chemistry right now and I hope it continues throughout the season.”
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