Courtesy Photo Provided by: Audra Merino
“We had just won, and I started to walk across the field upset because I had been kicked in the shin and split a calf really hard, when I noticed Skyler walking onto the field,” Merino said. “He walked over and said ‘hey.’ I said ‘hi.’ He then got down on one knee and said ‘Audra, will you marry me?’ And of course I said yes right away!”
Merino was completely shocked and so were the rest of her teammates.
“All of the girls came rushing over and everyone was crying,” Merino said. “It was crazy! It was really straightforward; I was not expecting it at all. He had my whole family come and they got it on video; that was really cool.”
Stoker had been planning on proposing for around three to four months and, like usual, it was very hard to keep a secret as big as proposing from Merino.
“It was really difficult trying to keep it a secret because she was always asking questions and stuff about what I was doing,” Stoker said. “I had to make plans and buy the ring and everything, so it was kind of hard to keep it under cover.”
Merino had detected Stoker had been acting unusual, so she had one of her best friends, senior soccer defender Amanda Foster do a little bit of snooping.
“Audra noticed that he was acting a little differently so she asked me to find out what was going on,” Foster said. “I texted him and he told me that he wanted to propose to her. Then he asked me what I thought about him proposing on senior day, and I said it would definitely surprise her.”
Once Foster was let in on the secret, she tried everything she could to keep Stoker’s secret.
“She kept talking about the possibility of him proposing, so I had to dodge the question,” Foster said. “I was just so happy for her because they are perfect together.”
Caught up in the moment, Stoker realized just how easy it was to ask the woman he loves so much to marry him.
“I thought asking Audra was pretty easy; I was actually surprised how easy it was. I got really nervous when I had to ask her dad for her hand in marriage, so it was a lot less scary to do the actual thing,” Stoker said. “I just thought about how I want to spend the rest of my life with her.”
Merino and Stoker have not made too many plans yet because they are both still working on starting their careers before they jump into planning.
“Not really any details yet,” Merino said. “I have my internship next semester and he has student teaching, so we want to get stuff sorted out with jobs and stuff before we get married.”
Merino and Stoker are both thinking about having their wedding in the summer of 2015 when they have both finished school.