The story of SLU’s soccer star and her pet cow Winston

Emily Gaebe, St. Louis U.’s confident and dominant soccer star, actually is quite quirky and, per her coach, “very humble” and can “laugh at herself,” which makes it fitting that Gaebe is the proud owner of … a pet cow named Winston.

“We always joke about getting him here for a game as a mascot,” Gaebe said. “But he’s like 2,500 pounds now.”

And so, Gaebe’s biggest supporter never has seen her play. He remains on the family’s land back in Union, 48 miles from Midtown, where the senior Gaebe and SLU (13-1-6) will play Massachusetts (13-4-3) at noon Sunday for the Atlantic 10 Conference women’s soccer title.

A win and SLU’s in the NCAA Tournament. The Billikens have won the A-10 tournament in each of the past six seasons — oh, and haven’t allowed a goal in the tourney in their past eight games (23-0 aggregate score).

A loss and SLU still might be in — after all, the Billikens are ranked 26th in the NCAA Division I Ratings Percentage Index (RPI).

And this year’s club is stacked, as it annually is under coach Katie Shields. For instance, defender Lyndsay Heckel made the all-conference team for a fifth consecutive season (she earned an extra year because of the pandemic). And Gaebe was named conference offensive player of the year, just like she was last season.

An argument can be made that Gaebe is the best SLU women’s soccer player ever. So far this year, she has scored 14 goals in her 19 games played (the next-closest goal-scorer is actual the defensive player Heckel, with five). Gaebe is SLU’s career leading scorer, with 45 goals. And she’s tied for fifth all-time in assists, with 22.

“She’s just one of one,” Shields said. “I’ve never, ever coached a player like her — and I don’t know that we ever will again. … I think Gaebe is maybe the most exciting player to ever play here, because when she gets the ball, it’s wild. … She’s just such a pure goal scorer — both in mind and body. …

“And from a goal-scoring standpoint, she’s somebody who can dribble through (a defense). She can go 1 v. 3, 1 v. 4 and somehow find her way to goal. She just has a knack for finishing in a lot of different ways. And she runs about 20 miles per hour when she gets going. She’s the second-fastest player on the team. So, yeah, she’s something special to watch.”

Shields explained that Gaebe is extremely well-liked by her teammates — “a special human.” And Shields said she’ll forever remember the first time she saw Gaebe play.

The SLU coach was at the Lou Fusz Athletic Complex in Creve Coeur. A local club director said to check out this one player.

“He goes, ‘This one is something special. What do you think?’” Shields said. “And I sat there, and nothing happened. Nothing happened. And then …”

Shields snapped her fingers.

“She scored two goals just like that.”

Once Gaebe became official recruiting age, Shields began the process to nab this elite scorer of what Shields calls “buckets of goals.”

“I always liked soccer because my older sister played soccer,” Gaebe said. “I always wanted to be as good as her — so I always just pushed myself. … Through and through, I’m all about scoring goals. I just think it’s fun. Playing with your teammates, everybody’s celebrating. … I would say that our team pours into each other — everybody does their best to make your teammate look good.”

How much is scoring on Gaebe’s mind? She literally even dreams about it.

“Me and Julia Simon talk about this all the time,” Gaebe said. “Like, we literally have dreams about scoring goals. Like, ‘I assisted your goal. It was the coolest goal ever. We’re going do that tonight (in the game)!’ ”

Gaebe is in SLU’s athletic training program, but she very well could make a roster in the National Women’s Soccer League. There’s currently one other Billiken in the league — Maddie Pokorny of the Louisville club.

In the short term, Gaebe’s focus is Sunday’s game and being able to play in front of family, friends and fans once more. The Billiken mascot likely will be there. The same, of course, can’t be said for Winston.

“I think I was a freshman in high school,” Gaebe said of how her family acquired a pet cow. “So we have a farm, 20 minutes away from my house, and my dad has cattle on it. One of the cows had a baby — and the mom couldn’t feed it. I guess sometimes cows can turn away. So my dad had to bring it home. My mom had to bottle-feed it, which led to her getting attached to it. So then he basically turned into, like, a dog for our family.

“He would just walk outside around our house — we live on seven acres. And when he was small enough, he would lay on our front porch. He was literally like a dog until he got too big. He would start trying to head-butt people — he was just playing around, but he was 1,000 pounds. So we had to fence him in, inside our backyard. He’s huge.”