There was no state championship celebration for Amy Braig her senior season.

Glacier High School had a losing campaign on the pitch, going 1-9-2. The Wolfpack scored just 11 goals while allowing 34.

Postseason soccer honors had the talented Wolfpack keeper listed only as an all-conference honorable mention selection. She was all-conference her junior season.

But that’s all behind her now.

And, it doesn’t really matter any more.

A trip to Brazil this summer to play some friendly soccer matches and watch the Olympics is garnering most of her attention these days. Then in the fall it’s off to college on a full-ride scholarship — 1/2 for soccer and 1/2 for academics — to Lincoln Memorial University, a private four-year institution of higher learning located in Harrogate, Tennessee. Tuition is $20,056 per year.

“You’re a student/athlete,” Braig said of her next venture at the co-educational liberal arts school, which has an undergraduate enrollment of 1,699 students (70 percent female).

“I’m going to college to get an education ... soccer is a bonus.”

The small campus, 1,000-acres, is situated next to the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. The NCAA Division II school is a member of the South Atlantic Conference and offers 18 sports.

“I got an email early this fall (from Lincoln Memorial),” Braig said.

“It said: ‘We’ve heard about you from other coaches and we need a good keeper.’”

Braig had attended a soccer camp in Seattle, one she nearly backed out of, and somehow word of her outstanding performance there made its way back to Tennessee.

“A crazy experience,” she called it.

“I knew I had a future career (with soccer). I never had the moment, though, where I want to play college soccer. I always assumed that’s what you did next.”

She said Pacific Lutheran and a few schools in New York were the first ones to take an interest in her.

Her parents, Janet Trippet and Rob Braig, helped the process along by hiring a recruiting service — Student Athlete Showcase — to help get Braig’s name out there for soccer.

“They had all my stats, made a highlight film and created a website for me,” she said of Student Athlete Showcase.

The cost “was over $1,300 for one year. They sent out releases to colleges and universities that fit my criteria. Coaches then respond to me.

“I wasn’t tenacious enough to do that on my own,” she admitted.

“I wish I was more proactive, but it worked.”

Braig will graduate from Glacier with a 4.0 GPA, which includes six Advanced Placement Merit Distinction classes.

“We are truly a national (and international) program and when we recruit we look at players from all over,” Lincoln Memorial coach Helio D’Anna said.

“We attend national showcases, take advantage of national and international recruiting services and have many eyes out there from former players and coaches. So when we came across Amy, we really liked her athleticism, aggressiveness and shot-stopping ability. We typically carry three to five keepers and have high expectations for her.”

Braig has been a member of the Glacier varsity for four seasons. She started a few games her freshman season as an outside midfielder.

She switched to keeper her sophomore season and has been minding the goal ever since.

‘‘I’m very happy with it and all it has done for me,” she said of soccer.

“Hard work does pay off.

“I’m able to play soccer in college,” she added.

“Only one percent of high school athletes get to do that, so I feel very fortunate.”

Braig, an avid skier, tried her hand at basketball and volleyball, “but I didn’t like being inside.”

She was a hurdler in track for three seasons before switching over to tennis this spring. She made varsity.

“My goal was to beat my younger sister, but that’s not going to happen,” she said.

Braig’s first soccer experience was as a fourth grader in the fall recreation league and later with the Flathead Force.

“My older sister played for a couple years and one of our good friends, Bill Benedetto, was a coach. He kind of got me going into it.

“I loved to run,” she said.

“I would play forward, defense or anywhere on the field. By halftime I was so tired from running I would play goalkeeper so I could still play (rather than stand on the sidelines).”

She said she was “really bad” at dribbling and the basic skills in the early going.

“I’m still not real good at juggling,” she admitted.

When her freshman season finally arrived, Braig had high hopes regarding her prep career.

“I was confident I had the ability to make varsity, but was also OK with not making varsity,” she said.

“I was older for my grade, so I always played with older girls.”

That also elevated her game.

“I remember that year,” she said of freshman tryouts.

“It was the first year (for coach Brenden Byrd). He put us through the ringer with two-a-days.”

Then on a Wednesday evening, after the final tryout session, she got the word she was hoping to hear.

“It was mostly nervous, waiting,” she said.

“You would sit in a big huddle (with all the players) and the coaches would go off to the side. They would call you over one by one and tell us.”

What did she hear from Byrd?

“Congratulations! You made varsity.”

Glacier advanced to state that year and Braig was on the state team.

Braig moved into goal the next season when a keeper elected not to play any more.

“Another girl was a lot better in the field than I was and we were closely matched (at keeper),” Braid said.

“In the long run it was better for us to have her on the field where she was stronger.”

Her first start was at home versus Missoula Sentinel. An experience she will never forget.

“I had prepared all summer,” she said.

“I knew I wanted to be a varsity goalkeeper. But when I was standing on the field and play started, I thought ‘Oh my gosh. This is for real.’ I couldn’t tuck and run. I’m here for 80 minutes.”

She allowed two goals in each half. Sentinel won 4-2.

The Spartans outshot Glacier on goal 22-12. Braig had 15 saves.

Glacier advanced to state her junior season. The Wolfpack went 4-4-4 in the regular season, scoring 16 goals while allowing 18, and defeated Missoula Big Sky 3-2 in Kalispell in a state tournament play-in game. Braig had a big save in regulation of that one, knocking the ball over the crossbar on a hard shot. She then made a critical diving stop when a Big Sky player broke through the Glacier defense in overtime.

Byrd called both plays “game-changing saves.”

Big Sky had 18 shots on goal. Braig was credited with 11 saves on that gray, dreary, rainy day.

At state, Braig suffered an injury in the first game in Great Falls.

“There were two broken legs, one on our team,” she said of that physical battle with C.M. Russell.

“And an ACL tear. I sprained my LCL.”

The match was scoreless at the end of regulation play and after two overtimes.

“We lost to them in a shootout,” she said.

“I was hurting, but it was the best game I ever played and it wasn’t on film. “They ended up winning state that year.”

She describes shootouts as simply “awful.”

“You pick a side, jump and hope they do to,” she said of her keeper strategy.

She said her teammate, Maddi Paulson, told her before that shootout that “nothing gets by you. You know how to stop them.”

“It didn’t happen, but it was good to know someone believes in you,” Braig said.

CMR won the shootout 4-2. Glacier was eliminated the next game by Helena High 4-2.

Braig called her senior season “a losing year. It was hard. A lot of 1-0 games, down to the wire.”

The victory over Helena Capital at home in the regular-season finale saved the season.

“Our parents were there, kids from school. It was a beautiful day.”

“I was crying after the game,” she said.

“After the losing season, it felt like winning state.”

A memorable way to conclude her prep career.

“Her willingness to be one of the top competitors,” Byrd said of what set Braig apart from others.

“She has a drive like no one else. She came in as a freshman being a field player and when asked to step into the role as goalkeeper there was no hesitation. She took it in stride.

“She was a commander in chief back there,” he continued.

“Her communication level, her field awareness (was superb). She never let her competitive edge slip in any game.”