EC Lady 'Birds improving throughout soccer season
By KRIS BAGLEY sports@leader-news.com

Lady 'Bird Soccer Members of El Campo's girls soccer team include (front, l-r) Gabby Villalobos, Veronica Vasquez, Meylin Avila, Dera Ocanas, Britney Garcia, (second, l-r) Leticia Medillin, Lauren Condra, Cynthia Rojas, Becky Montes, McKinsey Flores, Jessica L-N Photo by Kris Bagley Cruz, Cruz Leon, (back. l-r) Coach Tala Allen, Patricia Ramriez, Yajaira Pedroza, Sommer Stanley, Alexis Moller, Yvonne Canales, Shelby May and Cheyenne Staff. The girls are 4-6 on the season.

Her first year coaching El Campo girls soccer was stressful at first, but a few games into the season and Tala Allen is loving her new sport.

At the beginning of the season, she said it was difficult coaching through rain and 40-degree temperatures. Now, Allen braves the wind with little more than a short-sleeved shirt, a winning attitude and a team willing to fight until the bitter and virtually freezing end.

"This year is going pretty well," Allen said. "It's going a lot better than I expected. I was kind of nervous at the beginning of the season because I wasn't sure of myself."

Studying the game and working with returning key players have helped Allen embrace her new coaching role.

"The girls came out and the seniors this year that were here last year were a big help," she said. "Alexis Moller and Yvonne Canales, they were juniors last year and they were a big help this year helping me kind of understand the game. A lot of it, I picked up on my own. I went and watched the videos and went to coaching school. It's a lot of fun and it's a lot like basketball too."

Though it may seem far different from the high-scoring indoor sport, Allen said it is the intricacies of soccer that remind her of basketball. Her hoop-based background has come into play this season.

"The thing that makes it a lot like basketball is with the trapping on the sidelines and the pressing," Allen said. "Also, you have an attacking mid that's like your point guard and you've got your forwards there. It's a lot like basketball because it's a lot of give and go and a lot of creating natural screens."

Working as a head soccer coach for the first time has been a challenge for Allen, but she said the team has helped her through it. The team atmosphere is what she said is most enjoyable about her first year.

"The girls make it so easy for me because they're a good group of girls," the coach said. "They work hard and get along with each other. The second thing about soccer is the physicalness. It's a little bit more physical.

"There's a lot more running. I think it's the physicalness of the sport and all the other different sports that you can incorporate in soccer is just awesome. You've got a little football in there, you've defi- nitely got track because you're running and you've got basketball in there."

With so much moving around, long-distance running may seem a solid area for soccer players to work on, but Allen said that is over rated.

"A lot of times, people think, 'OK, you're soccer so you need to run a lot of miles,'" she said. "Yeah, you need to run a mile every so often to train and get your endurance, but you also have to train for sprinting. You're basically training a track athlete. There's a lot of sprints, mid-distance and long distance combined into one."

At 4-6 on the year, the Lady 'Birds have struggled at times against more established programs. With inexperience, a team must focus on other areas than record in order to gage success.

"The season so far has been pretty good," Allen said. "We're having a tough time with Lamar, Foster, Seven Lakes and Bay City because they have strong programs. Their programs have been around for a while. This is the fifth year for soccer and we're still young. We're still kind of tender. The games against Seven Lakes, those girls play all the time and it's given my girls experience so they know what they have to work towards.

"Really this season, we've been pretty successful. We're not going to measure our success on our win-loss column, but we've been successful. Over half of those young ladies that I have, they have never played up until this year. There are some that have played with the Boys & Girls Club, but for the most part, they've never played."

With five regular season games left, the Lady 'Birds still have plenty of opportunities for a winning record. Even if the team has trouble over the next few weeks, the Lady 'Birds can look back with pride on their year.

As their coach said, the team has been in every game they have played and if they have not won, the Lady 'Birds at least gave their opponents good challenges.

Allen said the Lady 'Birds' success is about "growth and improvement and to give people a hard time when they step out on the field against us. If they're going to win, we're going to make them earn it. These young ladies, they've definitely done that. They've made people earn their wins. They haven't just rolled over and played dead for anybody. They fight until the very last second and I love that about them."