Last Friday, the MSU women’s soccer team and then-No. 9 Wisconsin kicked off their Big Ten seasons in a tough opener.
The Spartans and Badgers are certainly familiar with one another, but two individuals involved in the game knew each other like sisters.
Courtney Clem, MSU’s redshirt senior starting goalkeeper, had the rare opportunity to see her sister, Caitlyn Clem, on the opposite bench. Caitlyn Clem is a redshirt freshman for Wisconsin and because the Badgers already have a solid fifth-year senior in net, she did not see any playing time.
Throughout the game, Caitlyn Clem had some mixed emotions from the visiting sideline and wasn’t quite sure how to handle watching her sister’s terrific play in goal.
“It was weird,” Caitlyn Clem said. “I didn’t know whether to cheer when she made a good save or be upset about it.”
The two teams were tied at one at the end of regulation and needed overtime to decide a winner. Wisconsin squeaked a goal past Courtney Clem near-post to clinch the win one minute into overtime.
After the game, the sisters and their parents met up for pictures in what was a unique moment for the two girls.
“We just looked at each other and knew to let it go,” Caitlyn Clem said of their post-game reunion. “It didn’t matter what happened at that point. Courtney always does a good job leaving the past in the past and focusing on the future.”
It was certainly a tough loss for Courtney Clem and MSU, but the meeting between the sisters itself speaks volumes about the weight the Clem name now carries.
The sisters also have a cousin named Lauren Clem, who is a freshman at Northwestern and is the women soccer team’s starting goalkeeper.
Beginning of a legacy
Courtney Clem and Caitlyn Clem both picked up soccer at a young age, despite the fact that their parents were neither soccer players nor fans of the game themselves.
Their father, Dean Clem, was an athlete and he played college football as an offensive lineman for Grand Valley State University. Everything he knew about soccer came from playing the game during college intramurals. Their mother, Debra Clem, does not have an athletic background, so both parents were foreigners to the game that their daughters soon began to love.
“I started playing pick-up and they didn’t even know what soccer was at that point,” Courtney Clem said. “They just wanted me to follow my dreams, and actually when I was 10, it was my goal to play at Michigan State. They just kind of stuck behind me as I worked toward that goal.”
According to Dean Clem, when Courtney Clem was in elementary school, the Clem family switched over to the Williamston school district. One of the mothers from the local recreation league suggested to Courtney Clem that she play soccer. They allowed her to play and soon realized that the recreation league was not competitive enough for their daughter.
TNT Dynamite Soccer Club was searching for a goalie and a defender, and Courtney Clem started training to fill this need. The Clem parents quickly learned soccer as their eldest daughter began to excel.
At that point, soccer became a common element in the family’s daily life and Caitlyn Clem picked up the game as well. As the two began to play competitively, they started working with each other to improve their game.
“We would always go and practice in the yard,” Courtney Clem said about working with her younger sister. “If she needed some brushing up, I would help her out and she would help me out.”
Kicking it up a notch
The sisters began training together and, according to Caitlyn Clem, Courtney Clem provided support and motivation that was vital to both of their success.
“She’s always been there from day one,” Caitlyn Clem said. “She’s a teacher. She got me in the gym everyday, even when I didn’t want to be there. She’s always had a ‘just get it done’ mentality and that really helped me.”
At Williamston High School, the Clem sisters sit atop most of the All-Time goalkeeper school records. Caitlyn Clem’s 17 shutouts in 2012 give her the most in one season — just one more than Courtney Clem’s 16 shutouts in 2008.
Courtney Clem did give up the fewest goals per game however, allowing only .5 goals per contest in 2008.
“When you’ve got someone of that caliber in net, it helps the team out a lot,” said Jim Flore, head coach of Williamston High School women’s soccer team.
Flore coached Courtney Clem on the varsity team for four years and he coached Caitlyn Clem for another three. In watching their skills develop for nearly a decade, he noted that they both had an incredible work ethic on and off the field. They aren’t the first sisters that he’s coached, but they are the first that have both ended up at a Division I university.
Flore added the sisters were both vocal and taught the players around them.
“They’re kind of like quarterbacks in goal — they’re very verbal,” Flore said.
Although both girls dominated in high school, they made sacrifices and sometimes missed out on opportunities that their classmates enjoyed, such as homecoming dances and football games. Courtney even gave up playing high school basketball to focus exclusively on soccer.
Dean and Debra Clem also made sacrifices to support their children. They drove from Williamston to Wixom at least three times a week, and on weekends they drove cross-country for club soccer tournaments.
“It’s quite an investment in time,” Dean Clem said. “You really try to do your family vacations around soccer.”
All of that dedication has paid off.
Courtney Clem was a three-time First Team All-State player in Michigan, and Caitlyn Clem made Second Team All-State twice before making First Team her senior year of high school.
The awards piled on for the Clem sisters, and luckily for their parents, so did the collegiate offers. Her father believes that the work Courtney Clem put in was very helpful to both Caitlyn Clem and her cousin Lauren Clem.
Caitlyn Clem was also a four-year member of the Olympic Development Program. She played for the Michigan Hawks as well, one of the top teams in the Elite Clubs National League.
“I would say that Courtney paved the way for the Clem name through her participation in the Olympic Development Program,” Dean Clem said. “She got recognized in the summer, played with Michigan Hawks, and then she really got her name out there.”
College glory
Courtney Clem has always tried to be a mentor to her younger sister. The two have competed with each other throughout their lives, but now that they are both collegiate goalkeepers, the sibling rivalry has lessened.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a competition between us at this point, it’s more of cheering each other on now,” Courtney Clem said at a practice before last Friday’s game. “Our main years for competition were when we were younger. But definitely with this game on Friday, we’ve been doing a lot of trash talking.”
Caitlyn Clem has played just over 80 minutes for the Badgers this year, and has not allowed a goal. She will most likely get the chance to start next year.
Lauren Clem was named the Big Ten’s Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 9. Courtney Clem was the reigning two-time Defensive Player of the Week, before her cousin won the honor. Lauren Clem is a major reason that Northwestern has gotten off to a respectable 4-2-2 start.
Although their daughters have grown to be so talented, Dean and Debra Clem note that their children have earned it the right way.
“They’re goal-driven,” Dean Clem said. “They’ve had written goals forever, and they’ve focused on what they want to do. Courtney had it written on her mirror that she wanted to be a goalkeeper in college.”
While Courtney and Caitlyn Clem’s goals have already panned out, their younger sister, Madison Clem, is hoping for the same.
According to Dean Clem, Madison Clem, a sophomore in high school, is very interested in playing in the Big Ten. The sisters might meet each other again in the next few years, should Madison Clem’s potential Big Ten school meet Caitlyn Clem and the Wisconsin Badgers.
The Big Ten is traditionally recognized as one of the most competitive women’s soccer conferences in the country, and one family’s bloodline has helped keep it so in recent years. Elite skills are essential to compete in the conference, and the Clems have been an assembly line of talent.
