Midway sophomore Tori Reynolds shows fellow teammate Farrah Jackson some stretches during practice. Because Reynolds was out this season due to injury, she took on the duties of an assistant coach to remain with the team.
Photo By Jessica Wagner
The snap, which brought the then freshman to the ground, was, in fact, a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
After sustaining a drastic injury to her knee, Reynolds, who has been playing soccer since she was barely walking, was forced to take a season off from the sport.
But, once healed, Reynolds was right back on the Raider field, giving it her all, this time from the sidelines.
That all is what’s she’s given since she first was introduced to a soccer ball.
At the age of three, Reynolds’ uncle, Alen McLamb, introduced the toddler to the game while coaching a recreational team.
“I played everything from T-ball to soccer when I was younger,” Reynolds said, adding that when she reached middle school she discovered soccer was her passion.
Reynolds was posted as the goalkeeper for the majority of her soccer career because of her keen eye and hand coordination, she explained.
“I like to run, but I never had a team that could run so I always was the goalie. I am defensive-minded, too. I don’t like to score; I like to win,” she attested.
In 2006, Reynolds received a taste of field action when head coach Will Hurley took over the Raiders middle school team. Reynolds was a seventh grader.
“I told him I hated him for taking me out of the goal,” Reynolds admitted four years later. “You know how girls lose their baby fat, well I had just lost mine and hadn’t been running. I am stubborn, and I don’t like change.”
While the thought of being moved to midfield was dreadful to the then rising eighth grader, Reynolds followed the coach’s orders and handed her goalkeeper uniform to teammate Madison Wulf.
“I had to do the most running ever,” Reynolds explained of getting in hape for her new post on the field. “It was easy to pick up, though, because I am defensive-minded. My time in goal, I think, helped me with this position.”
After assisting the middle school Raiders to an appearance in the conference championship game in 2008, Reynolds, her team and Hurley headed to the high school.
“My first year on the high school team I scored a few goals, but I mostly cleared the ball because of my strong foot,” she recalled of the 2009 season.
The 2009 lady Raider team went on to sweep the conference after taking down James Kenan on the road.
When the fall rolled around, Reynolds geared up for her indoor soccer based out of Fayetteville. By September, her knee was shot, and she was out.
“I could do drills and practice, but I couldn’t work on cutting or physical contact,” the Raider said of the months following surgery.
While the defensive minded Raider heeded her doctor’s advice not to play in the 2010 season, not even a torn ACL could keep her from the field.
Her second option — the sidelines.
“Coach Hurley mentioned coaching to me because he knew I wanted to be there because soccer is my passion. It just kind of went from there,” Reynolds recalled.
While her passion may be soccer, coaching was another ball park.
“Coaching is the best form of birth control,” she joked. “A teacher here has a class where people are very outspoken. She always says, ‘Teaching is the best form of birth control.’ I thought about it and realized girls have a lot of drama.”
Dealing with 24 freshmen and sophomore’s on the field this season, Reynolds got a taste of what every coach in the high school level experiences daily, she said.
“I tried my best to stay neutral. There were (a few) girls that I tried to help that used my advice, but never credited or thanked me,” Reynolds said.
When battling resistance and possibly a touch of resentment, Reynolds opted to use Hurley as her crutch.
“I told coach Hurley that I might as well say, ‘Coach Hurley told me to tell you to do this,’” she said.
While some girls opposed Reynolds help on the field, her persistent drive kept her in the game.
“A majority of the girls used my advice, scored and thanked me for it. I told one girl to step in front of the post defender when Taylor Lee takes a free kick. She crashed and scored,” Reynolds recalled.
According to the Raider, moments like this made assisting her coach worthwhile.
Lee, a teammate, said she is ready for Reynolds to join the Raiders again on the field.
“I’ve known her for a long time. She is a great soccer player. Her shots have gotten stronger, and I am ready for her to be back because she will make us stronger,” Lee lauded.
Agreeing, Anna Johnson said, “She has helped me so much this year by telling me where to go when we’re in games.”
Johnson added that she has been waiting all year for Reynolds to retake the field.
For Farrah Jackson, Reynolds has helped her crashing to the ball this season as well as stretching.
Another Raider Reynolds has personally assisted this year is current goalkeeper, Andrea Porubkova.
“She has taught me all the angles and how not to be scared of the ball,” Porubkova said. “I am ready for her to come back. She has great hits and is awesome on defense.
Whether Reynolds’ advice was taken or not, one thing is for sure, the Raiders are a family.
“When I was little, my uncle would tell us that the team was a family and to act like that both on and off the field. If you implement the values of a family to the team, I think you are better off,” she explained. “Most of us have played together since rec so when it comes to drama we stand by each other.”
Although Reynolds will be taking the field next season, she will not have coach Hurley on the sidelines.
“She will be awesome next year,” Hurley conveyed. “Every game she wanted to play, but I just couldn’t do that, even if it meant we would have won the second round. She is not there yet, but she is so much stronger.”
On next season, Reynolds chimed in, “I am going to miss him (Hurley). But, we are just going to have to go out there, cut out the back talk and work on our skills. We have a lot of talented girls, but not all are good at taking criticism.”
Likewise Hurley said he, too, will miss Reynolds.
“She is very dear to me, along with the girls,” Hurley said of his team. “They are all like my own kids. I am that close to them.”
While Reynolds hopes to take the sidelines again in the future, for now her concentration in solely on playing soccer.
“I think she will have a whole knew outlook when coaches say something because she understands it now” Hurley expressed.
Jessica Wagner can be contacted at (910) 592-8137 ext.122 or reached by e-mail at siphoto@heartlandpublications.com.
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