Photo by Adam Vogler
Tina Commons clears out the ball while playing goalie during practice for Emporia State girls soccer team on Wednesday.
Tina Commons might be the first soccer mom with skills.
She doesn’t drive a minivan or distribute the oranges — although she used to distribute the orange — but Commons has had a motherly influence on her new teammates this season.
Commons, a senior, began to get burned out with basketball last year. In the spring, with the encouragement of her friends and family, she decided to quit the basketball team to play soccer. The ESU soccer team was happy to have her, and two weeks into practice she’s already been such a strong influence on her teammates that several have asked coach Jim Schneiderhahn if Commons would be eligible to be selected as a captain.
“She’s kind of like the positive mom,” senior Shelley Marsh said. “We’ll be getting ready for practice and everybody’s like, ‘Oh man, we’ve gone for seven days. I’m starting to get tired.’ And she’s like, ‘Hey guys, that means we only have two more days. It’s fun, we’re good.’”
Commons’ approach and attitude is no news to ESU women’s basketball coach Brandon Schneider.
“Tina’s a great teammate,” Schneider said. “I don’t know if we’d ever have anybody who was more consistent on putting the team first. She worked hard no matter what we were doing, she always put out great effort.
“We had a lot of young players last year that she competed for playing time with, yet still did a great job of helping those players and mentoring them and educating them on what our expectations were. She always had a really good grasp of our philosophy and our system.”
Commons’ team-first approach is a welcome addition to the soccer program, which is trying to bounce back from a winless 2007 season. In high school at Emporia High, Commons was the star forward and a prolific goal-scorer, but Schneiderhahn has asked her to play several different roles with the Hornets.
“She’s going to see probably a little bit of everywhere with us,” he said. “I see her as a forward. I see her potentially as a wing midfielder, and we tried her in the middle the other day and she did OK.”
Commons has also been practicing the last few days as the team’s goalie after an injury put Schneiderhahn in need of a keeper.
“I figure at one time in her life she’s caught a ball. It might have been a little bit bigger and orange, but it’s still a ball,” Schneiderhahn said. “So she’s tended a little bit of goal and done very well there as well.”
Commons’ temporary move to goalie seems to be a natural fit, but the move to the soccer field hasn’t been entirely seamless. After all, Commons had not touched a soccer ball since her senior year of high school until this summer.
“There’s a big adjustment. It’s a different kind of fitness,” she said. “Also having the ball at your feet and not wanting to pick it up for sure.”
Schneiderhahn said Commons was rusty the first few days of practice. Her skills have started to return as practice has worn on. Her teammates say she has a good touch, especially after several years away from the game. She also brings speed and size to the team.
At 5-foot-9, she sticks out on the soccer field.
“Her size is definitely an attribute,” Marsh said, “because if you see our team, we’re not all that big.”
Schneiderhahn has been more impressed with Commons’ demeanor than anything else. He was taken aback when Commons didn’t understand something for the first time and she had an unusual response: She asked him a question.
“She has tremendous courage,” Schneiderhahn said. “Nobody wants to ask when maybe they’re not doing something they don’t know. And particularly for the new kids, the freshmen, to see that. The freshmen come in here and they’re maybe scared and timid and a little bit afraid to ask, and to have somebody older than them ask, I think that’s tremendous courage and that’s brilliant. She’s doing great.”
Within the coming days the soccer team is going to select a captain. When Commons was told some of her teammates are considering her for the honor, she sort of grimaced and gave the disapproving look of a mother.
“She probably was taken back on it being so new,” junior Alicia Smith said. “I think everyone obviously just sees a little bit of leadership in her already, and to come in this soon and for people to see that, I think people know that she could definitely be a good leader.
Commons’ reaction: “It’s an honor for some of them to do that,” she said. “But at the same time, ‘Is it the smart thing?’ goes through my mind, because I’ve been away from it for so long.”
Yep, she sure sounds like a mom.
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Posted by rcakmon (anonymous) on August 22, 2008 at 7:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Great news...the soccer team needs Tina and she'll play. Good luck, Tina!
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