Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2007
Most people don’t like to get dirty or mess their clothes up. But Northwest High senior girls soccer goalie Moriah Van Vlerah resents it when she comes off the field and her socks are pulled up and tight the way they were 80 minutes earlier and her uniform isn’t scattered with dirt stains. It means she hasn’t had the type of physical outing she cherishes about her position.
Van Vlerah’s physicality far exceeds what one would expect of her lean 5-foot-5 stature. It’s instilled fear in many opposing offenses and helped her dominate the net in 2006 with four saves per game. And it’s landed her a spot on an NCAA Division I college roster next fall. After attracting attention from several prestigious college programs, including Division I Towson and Robert Morris University in Pennsylvania, Van Vlerah, 16, verbally committed to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County in July, where she’ll play on an athletic scholarship.
‘‘That girl fears nothing,” six-year Northwest coach Katie Johnson said of her four-year starter. ‘‘So, a soccer ball is the least of her worries. She plays a lot bigger than she is. She’s so smart about cutting off the angle and she makes herself appear a lot bigger.”
The down-and-dirty attitude isn’t Van Vlerah’s only attribute. She’s got all the makings of a quality goalie. She’s quick and agile. She anticipates well and has great soccer knowledge and field vision. A starting defender her freshman year, she possesses strong foot skills —she still takes all the Jaguars’ free kicks. And, perhaps most importantly, she communicates well with her teammates, always encouraging and inspiring them.
Being a goalie is about a lot more than athletic ability, however. It takes a strong mentality. Though Van Vlerah is not at the center of most plays during a game, she must maintain her focus throughout. She must fight to stay loose because there’s no telling when she’ll be called on. And she only gets one chance, so it’s got to be good. But it’s that type of pressure that keeps the feisty athlete intrigued in goal, knowing her team’s depending on her.
‘‘Being mentally strong is the biggest thing,” Van Vlerah said. ‘‘You can’t be scared. You have to go out there and play. You can go a whole 40 minutes and not do anything and then the next 40 minutes you’re busy the whole time. Or, you can go 38 minutes without doing anything and then have to make one big save. And then when you get scored on, you need to shake it off and just keep going.”
Van Vlerah’s become good at letting things roll off her back though. As strong a soccer player as she is now and as much as her teammates rely on her, that hasn’t always been the case. She constantly faced doubt early in her career. In fact, the only reason she’s in goal now is because she was relegated to that position when she was 7 — her coaches told her she wasn’t good enough to play in the field.
But she loved it from the start. And, as an intense competitor, Van Vlerah thrives off a good challenge. She’s worked hard to prove herself. She’s a perfectionist on the field always yearning to improve. And that’s what she’s looking forward to most about playing at college, the opportunity to continually grow and mature as an athlete.
‘‘I’m excited,” Van Vlerah said. ‘‘I’m nervous, but I’m ready. It’s like I’ve worked my whole life to get somewhere and now it’s paid off. I looking forward to the competition I’m going to be faced with. These players are going to be a lot older, their shots a lot harder. It’s going to be a different game. I’m looking forward to working hard this next year I want to really buckle down. I want to get stronger, more in shape, get more fit. I want to get the best experience I can and work the hardest I can so hopefully I can start as a freshman next year.”
Van Vlerah is a commanding presence on the field, for the opposition and for her teammates — she’s always driving them to work hard and play to their potential. But she’s also usually the first one to pull out a joke, or goof around. She’s multidimensional. And that’s why Johnson is confident her charge is about the embark on a successful four-year college career.
‘‘She’s very humorous,” Johnson said. ‘‘Sometimes I’ll look over at her and she’ll be doing something crazy and I’m just like, ‘What are you doing.’ But she can be totally off task and two seconds later completely back on it. ... There are some things you can’t teach these young athletes. Moriah is the total package. Soccer is her life. She loves it. She’s always trying to make her teammates better. I think UMBC is fortunate to have gotten such a treasure.”
