“Many risks, few rewards for goalkeepers” |
| Many risks, few rewards for goalkeepers Posted: 06 Oct 2010 05:02 PM PDT It's not a big secret in the soccer world. "Goalkeepers are a little bit off mentally," says Trip Rogers, a former keeper himself. "It's just part of the job description." And just imagine that job description ... WANTED: ■ Athletes willing to throw themselves in front of people charging at them full speed and then take a cleat to the face; ■ Must have cat-like reflexes and acrobatic tendencies to protect an expanse that is 24 feet wide and 8 feet tall; ■ Must be able to kick like a professional football player and understand angles as well as a geometry professor; ■ Oh, and your performance evaluations will only come after you mess up. Tis the life of a goalkeeper. "It's being prepared to do absolutely anything — to sacrifice any part of your body — to keep the ball out of the net," said Taylor Nossokoff, senior keeper for Paul Laurence Dunbar's boys' soccer team. "If you take time to worry or to think, you've already failed." As the post-season starts for high school soccer next week, there are no more ties. It's show time for goalkeepers and "oh, no" time for goalkeepers' parents. There will be penalty kicks and shootouts. There will be moments when centimeters mean the difference between advancing and going home. "I get very nervous at this time of the year," admitted Kelly Nossokoff, Taylor's mom. "At any moment, one mistake and the season ends." No person on the field is more keenly aware of that than a goalkeeper. "It's a thankless job," said Rogers, who has coached keepers at the college and high school levels in the Lexington area. "Strikers can miss 1,000 shots and if they make one, they're the hero. If you miss one, you're the scapegoat. "You have to be able to have a short-term memory, flush it quickly, recover and manage the rest of the game." Three fears of the keeper Bo Lankster admits that he cringed a little when his oldest daughter, Arly, told him that she wanted to be a goalkeeper. "I did," the Tates Creek girls' coach said, "because of the danger aspect of it. "Some of the most violent collisions are there. You've got forwards streaking after the ball who are just keeping their eyes on the ball, and you've got keepers who are going after the ball." The danger is constantly on the minds of the parents of keepers. "They're going to name a wing after her over at UK Hospital," Lynn Price said of her goalkeeping daughter, Kayla. Price will never forget a call from her husband two seasons ago when her daughter's Henry Clay team was facing Anderson County. Lynn was out of town when he called to tell her Kayla was injured. Lynn wasn't too worried. Goalies get nicked up every game. "So what's wrong this time?" she asked him. His reply stopped her in her tracks. "I don't know, we'll find out when we get to the hospital; she's in the ambulance in front of me," Lynn recalled him saying. At the time, trainers thought Kayla had a ruptured spleen. Another time she was kicked in the neck and had to be immobilized on the field and taken to the hospital. Kayla, who will play for the University of Kentucky next season, said she's had the neck injuries, concussions and broken ribs. But those things won't keep her off the field. "I love it too much," said Price, who has been playing the position since she was 9 years old. Sam Wooten was 38 when he finally tossed his goalie gloves aside for good. He didn't have a choice. "I'd still be playing it if I didn't get hurt every time I stepped out," said the keepers coach for Transylvania's women's and men's soccer teams. By Wooten's count, he has had seven concussions, two major shoulder surgeries and a compression fracture in his back. He said there are three fears that keep a goalkeeper from development: a fear of injury, a fear of failure or a fear of embarrassment. "If you can't manage those three fears, you can't be a good goalkeeper," he said. None of the current or former goalkeepers — who all admitted to being a little "off" themselves — said they worried about injuries. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Content Keyword RSS To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 comments:
Post a Comment