Claire Hutton: The 18-year-old Kansas City phenom making midfield dominance look easy

© Amber Searls-Imagn Images

You may not have thought much about a successful tackle in the 15th minute of the Kansas City Current’s home opener, but you should have. We all should have.

It’s a simple throw-in to Sophia Smith that the Kansas City defensive midfielder eventually wins and turns around in transition. It doesn’t end very cleanly for the Current, as Morgan Weaver eventually gets off on the dribble.

If you didn’t clock the player’s face or the name on the back of her jersey, you would think that this was just what a defensive midfielder should have done in that situation. It’s a pretty no-frills bit of graft. The game keeps going. On to the next play.

But the midfielder who managed to chase Smith down, pick her pocket, and complete the pass to her teammate wasn’t ordinary. She was Claire Hutton, two months removed from her 18th birthday. And that was one of the best dribbling forwards in the world, given no room to operate. Hutton’s peers were looking forward to their final spring break of high school. Hutton, meanwhile, just whipped the proverbial stone at Goliath and scored a direct hit.

Kansas City is hosting the first round of the playoffs at home, counting among its ranks the presumptive MVP (Temwa Chawinga), a global legend (Debinha), a resurgent NWSL talisman (Vanessa DiBernardo), a former USWNT fullback (Hailie Mace), a former World Cup goalkeeper (Almuth Schult), a league icon (Lo’eau LaBonta), and a young attacker realizing her massive potential (Michelle Cooper). What’s more, the Current’s defense and its transition attack from deep-lying midfield positions have gone less heralded than their high-flying attack, and have been just as critical to the club’s success this season. Hutton, through a level of technical sophistication beyond her years, has been central to Kansas City’s performance in those areas.

So, how on earth did this high schooler not only win the starting defensive midfield job on day one, but held it from wire to wire all year?