For those who don’t know, a goalkeeper in soccer is a lot like the quarterback of a football team or the point guard for a basketball one. They are the floor generals who do a majority of the talking or screaming in this case, in order to get everyone on the team into their correct positions. That leaves the women’s soccer team in a unique position coming into their 2017 season.
Normally, there would be at least one keeper on the roster who has at least one collegiate season under her belt. This experience allows her to mentor and tutor anyone else that comes in, even if she is later beat out for the job.
However, for the women’s soccer team, their goalkeeping roster consists of not one, not two, not three, but four freshman goalies who, until the first game of the season, had never been in a collegiate game in their careers.
Abby Steers, Emily Signorio, Jessica Jolley and Kamrie Gunderson are the keepers for this young Maverick team. And, while they are all competing for playing time, they are not letting it get in the way of helping one another.
“We have our own little group,” Jolley said. “It is the four of us and we always work together. […] It is really nice because all know each other and we push each other and help each other.”
“I think because we are all freshmen, you are kind of in it together or you’re not in it at all,” Steers said. “We all have the same level of play and we all have seen so much, but we haven’t seen the college level yet. So the only thing that we can do is push each other and learn from each other and work through everything together as a group.”
As a group, they make it a point of emphasis to look at one another’s game and find the areas where they need improvement, both during practice as well as during the games.
“Anytime somebody is working, the three of us are watching pretty much for mistakes so that we can tell them because we all want everybody to be better,” Signorio said.
Unlike the other three, Gunderson has been sidelined due to an injury sustained over the summer. This has given her a different role for the team while she recovers.
“I have a little bit of a different role [because of my injury],” Gunderson said. “My role with the keepers is to help them out in trainings and do what I can to make them better.”
With the team having multiple options at the goalkeeping position, it has led to Head coach Jason Clare not having a consistent starter in the early parts of the season.
“We never really know until that day,” Jolley said of knowing who is going to start what game.
“I think [Clare] is still trying to find who works best for the team,” Signorio said. “Especially if there is going to be different teams with different strengths he is going to play different people because each of us has a different strength.”
Through the first four games of the year, all three of the healthy keepers have gotten a shot to start in goal. But the fact that none of them know who is going to be starting is looked at as a motivator for them during their practices.
“If you knew you were going to start you might be more lax in practice, so I think it is good that we don’t know until game day,” Steers said.
Despite who may later become the starter as the season progresses, this tight knit group of freshmen are in it for the long haul.
“We are all doing it together, we all have something to contribute to the team,” Gunderson said.
