Tia Everdeen continues to do a lot of scoring for her Alma girls soccer team, much to the delight of the Panthers.
She’s a junior in her third varsity season.
It didn’t take long for Everdeen to establish her credentials as an excellent soccer player,
“My freshman year I broke our school record of goals in a single season with 15,” Everdeen said. “For my sophomore season, I re-broke my own record with 33 goals. This year, I’m at 77 so far (as of mid-May). I think (getting to 33) will be difficult. We’ve played a lot more talented teams this year than last year. If we can get a tournament in there for our team, that would be a goal.
“Last season, we worked more as a team at our midfield and I was able to shoot more balls. And as an individual, I was able to shoot more balls. As an individual, I had more of a confident shot than I did my freshman year. I usually play forward. I sometimes play some outside mid.”
Everdeen is in her 10th year of organized soccer, but said she hasn’t always been a scorer.
“I played defense all the way up to my freshman year,” she said “I was moved up to varsity as a forward. I was a defender. I think (coach) know I had the ability to be on the varsity. There was one spot where I could be as a forward. They put me there first game, I scored a couple and I’ve been there ever since.”
Everdeen said her productivity as a freshman seemed to surprise a lot of people.
The senior who had just graduated had beaten the record,” she said. “But going in as a freshman and beating the record the next year, everybody was astonished by that. I don’t think our coach expected it to go as well as it did.”
Everdeen scored both goals in early May in a 2-0 win over Laingsburg.
“We played so well as a team,” she said. “Our midfielders were giving everybody good balls all the time. It was a great game.”
As a player, Everdeen does “a pretty good job of seeing the field. I do a good job of knowing where my center mid and outside mids are, and putting the ball at their feet when they do it. I do a good job of keeping the balls low on my shots and hitting the corners. For most games, my runs as a forward are pretty decent.”