Xavier College Preparatory’s Kateri Etsitty caps her high school soccer career with state runner-up finish
Courtesy | Audrea Walshire Photograph
Xavier College Prep player Kateri Etsitty dribbles the ball during the 2026 AIA girls soccer season. The Diné player helped her team to a runner-up finish at the 6A level.
By Jalen Woody
Special to the Times
WINDOW ROCK
Kateri Etsitty, a Diné student at Xavier College Preparatory, took her high school soccer team to the state championships three times in her career.
In her time, she quickly became one of the most versatile players on the team and proved her ability during the state playoffs a few months ago.
She began playing soccer in kindergarten, mostly to remain active. In fact, she held no love for the sport during that first season. She had a change of heart the following year and she started to play club ball in the third grade.
“I started to really enjoy the sport a lot more,” Etsitty said. “The scoring and the feeling when you score, when you win a game. That’s what I really enjoyed and why I continued to play. It’s just a big rush of happiness and it’s just a feeling that is almost to me indescribable.”
When she was in the first grade, her team made it to the semifinals, it was a night game as she made the game winning goal.
To read the full article, please see the May 28, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
Get instant access to this story by purchasing one of our many e-edition subscriptions HERE at our Navajo Times Store.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow