Soccer

Keeping on

Monticello keeper Jessica Stant makes soccer a year-round venture in a quest to enhance her game

By RICHARD A. ROSS

FLORIDA, NY — A time-tested adage is that you get what you pay for. While that precept may not always be true when it comes to paying too much for things that turn out to be of little value or, conversely, reaping great rewards from seemingly small investments, by and large the maxim is correct. To be successful in any field, one must work hard, make sacrifices and show great self-discipline and perseverance.

In the highly competitive world of sports, athletes who devote themselves to the pursuit of excellence in one sport are bound to make greater strides than those who move in and out of various sports during the course of the year.

Given the large number of talented high school soccer players and the relatively few spots available to them on college teams, those who are committed to maximizing their skills and breaking into the ranks of the elite view soccer as a year-round venture. It’s the only way to beat the odds to become one of those chosen few who move up to the next level.

The end of their high school seasons signals the onset of work with travel teams from November into the first weeks of August, when the cycle begins anew.

For Monticello’s Jessica Stant, a 14-year- old freshman keeper, soccer is not a pastime, it’s a way of life. While many of her classmates are playing softball, running track, swinging golf clubs or eschewing sports to pursue their social agendas, Stant and her mom, Krys, are traveling to Florida, NY three days a week to the recently opened PrimoSports Center where the young phenom is honing her skills with the immensely talented elite of the Warwick WildKats, a team in Division I of the East Hudson Youth Soccer League. The WildKats are exclusively trained by Jim Lagarde, a man with vast coaching experience, vision and sophisticated teaching skills. Lagarde’s intention is to forge a premiere team that will become a force to be reckoned with.

Lagarde, who once played for Goshen High School, then Dominican College and Montclair State, assumed the head coaching job at John S. Burke at the tender age of 24. Ten years of coaching there have been followed by more than 550 hours of coaching and educating in seven countries. Lagarde is a well regarded member of the coaching staff of the National Soccer Association of America (NSCAA). He is now in his 18th year of coaching.

This coming summer, he has facilitated the WildKats’ entry into the Gothia Cup in Sweden, also known as the World Youth Cup. From July 10 to 13, Stant and her WildKat teammates will garner the invaluable experience of playing in a tournament that engages teams from 127 nations and acts as a platform for more than 700,000 young soccer players bent on displaying their skills on the biggest of stages. More than 1,500 teams participate in the tournament each year. Lagarde got the idea to attend the Gothia Cup from Randy Walstrom, the head coach at Notre Dame. Stant hopes that the experience will enhance her play, not only on the WildKats but also on the Monticello varsity team next fall. Lagarde is also bringing a U-18 boys team to the Gothia Cup.

Lagarde sees this as a great learning experience and knows that in a year from now, that experience and others, like the team’s current vying for the New York State Cup, will produce a team that is well recognized here and abroad.

The WildKats recently won their first game of the New York State Cup with a 2-0 victory over the Plainedge Power from Massapequa. Their next opponent will be the vaunted Albany Alleycats. Lagarde knows the team has to evince better communication on the pitch and register an even higher level of commitment in order to improve. That game will be played at the end of April in Florida. A loss on penalty kicks this past winter to Bowie in a tournament final in Maryland’s Capital Cup showed the team’s need for improvement, which Lagarde sees as measurable since then. Still, being a runner up in the Freestate Soccer Alliance was a starting point.

Much of the progress evinced by Stant and her teammates is directly attributable to Lagarde’s no-nonsense, high-speed workouts that build from week to week on their passing, dribbling and finishing skills. While he is teaching his offensive players to strike quickly and effectively, he is also counseling his keepers on ways to take better angles on shots and use their instincts and reflexes to prevent their opponents from getting easy goals.

Stant tried out for the WildKats in the fall of 2007 and joined forces with girls who hail John S. Burke, S.S. Seward and Vernon High School in New Jersey. With the opening of PrimoSports in December 2007, Lagarde, who envisioned and then invested in the venture with partner Luca Spensieri, took over the team as the sole trainer. Susan Waddell serves as the coach of the U-17 squad that practices at the 28,000-foot center. On Mondays, Stant works with Goalkeeping Director Roland Basha. Stant is one of two keepers on the WildKats, who shuttle in and out of the goal on successive kicks during practice. On Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings, she participates in the team workouts and concentrates on her work in the net.

Before agreeing to play for the WildKats, which will evolve into Lagarde’s Primo Sports team this July, Stant had to assure her family, her coach and trainer and most importantly, herself, that nothing would interfere with her commitment to take on the rigorous work that would be forthcoming. Speaking of commitments, families like those of Krys and Tom Stant must be willing to make great sacrifices to provide their kids with such opportunities. Time and providing transportation are big pieces, but so is money. While the cost of training with Lagarde works out to a modest $12 per session per girl, the rising price of gasoline adds greatly to the cost. Then, there is the juggling of trying to manage the rest of the family. In the case of the Stants, there are four children, meals to prepare and other practices to go to. But somehow, they manage.

Although one of the youngest members of the WildKats, Stant is no soccer newbie.

From age nine to 11, Stant played on the Liberty United U-12 co-ed team. She was the team’s only girl. Prior to that, she had played four years of AYSO soccer. Subsequently Stant, along with other girls from Liberty, Monticello and Tri-Valley, played on the Liberty United U-12 girls team. While the team struggled early, the fine training of coach Carpio Ramos and the team’s efforts paid off. Eventually, Liberty United won its division title and subsequently took second place on two other occasions.

From sixth through eighth grade, Stant played on the Olympic Development Team of the Hudson Valley. There she enhanced her keeping skills and footwork, while participating in many tournaments in which her team played the top teams in her age group from different states.

While on Liberty United, she also played as a guest player in winter tournaments with the Warwick WildKats.

Stant fared well at the WildKat tryouts run by Lagarde and former All-American Betsy Conaty, who played for the University of North Carolina. Stant and a number of girls from Liberty United made the team but at present Stant is the only one left from Liberty United.

Liberty United is still at it. They play their Hudson Valley Youth Soccer League home games at The Discovery Center.

Meanwhile, the WildKats are gearing up for a tough spring schedule against the Monroe Hurricanes, the Shrub Oak Volcanoes, the Brewster Breeze, the FC Somers Tigers and the LaGrange Nightmares. Rigorous practices, league games and state-cup experience and the chance to strut their stuff in Sweden will constitute the crucible that will forge an exceptional team within the next year, and Stant can’t seem to get enough of it.

At a recent practice session, Stant and teammates hustled as Lagarde barked out directions. “Today we’re going to score goals, score goals and more goals. We’re going to train like champions to go to another country,” he added as he demonstrated the proper way to strike the ball and aim kicks with control. Later, as a four-corner drill had players sending a barrage of shots at the net, Lagarde told his keepers, “Lower your center of gravity and take the best angle on the ball as you come out to meet the attack.”

By running, conditioning and learning non-stop, you can see the team rising to the challenge.

Yes, it’s all year round and, yes, it’s hard. But you get what you pay for.

Here’s to Stant, her family, her team, her coaches and trainer. What you’re building is worth the effort, and the residual rewards in terms of character and focus will last a lifetime.