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Grizzlies boast new faces for 2010
Adams State College women’s soccer coach Tom Cliff has announced the addition of 18 newcomers to his team’s 2010 roster. The group includes 14 recent high school graduates from seven different states and two junior college transfers, who join the Grizzlies this fall.
The list of newcomers also includes a mid-year transfer in Hannah Kimball and the addition of Adams State softball player Brianna Boyd, who participated with the soccer team during spring workouts.
Highlighting the list of newcomers is Platte City (Mo.) High School standout Whitney Smith, the younger sister of Grizzly sophomore-to-be Kaylee Smith. A 5-foot-8 forward, Whitney Smith set the Class 2 Missouri state record for goals in a season with 65 this spring. Named as a First Team Class 2 All-State selection, Smith also finished the 2010 season with 12 assists and tallied 180 goals and 45 assists, good for 405 total points during her 4-year prep career with the Pirates. In the process, she broke her sister’s school records for career goals (131) and points (378).
Whitney Smith also earned a variety of other awards this season and was tabbed as the Class 2 All-Kansas City/Central Region Player of the Year and to the first team all-conference, all-district and all-region teams.
Cliff also added four goalkeepers as part of his recruiting class in Santa Clara (Calif.) High School’s Whitney Brashear, Hannah Kohlts of Littleton’s Arapahoe High School, Kayla Riehl of Colorado Springs and Mesa Ridge High School and Taylor Wilson of Chandler, Ariz. and Perry High School.
Brashear, who resides in Port Hueneme, Calif., was a three-time all-conference for her high school squad and the starting keeper for the league-winning Oxnardwaves club team. Kohlts was the overall team MVP for the Warriors as a junior and helped lead that team to the state championship game once again in 2010. Riehl earned first team all-conference accolades this spring while Wilson, a fou-year captain, was the Perry Pumas’ MVP twice.
Cliff also added two players each from El Paso, Texas’ Coronado and Belen (N.M.) High School. Joining the Grizzly program from Coronado are midfielder Melanie Lunghi and forward AJ Young, both of whom play for the Xtreme club team as well.
Coming out of the Belen Eagles’ program are defender Brittany Ortega and midfielder Kelli Williams. Ortega was a four-time all-district and two-time honorable mention all-state player while Williams, who resides in Los Lunas, led the team in scoring with 10 goals and six assists as a senior in the fall of 2009.
The Grizzlies also picked up two other out-of-state products in first team all-district selection Sheri Girardi of Pearland, Texas, and Heather Pfister of Las Vegas, Nevada’s Palo Verde High School. Both players play both as forwards and midfielders.
Cliff also stayed closer to home in recruiting three other Colorado high school seniors in Pomona forward Myranda Hemlock, Montezuma-Cortez forward and midfielder Shelby Janz and Bear Creek defender Alex Sanderson. Hemlock earned Second Team All-Jeffco League honors in 2009 while Janz led the Southwestern League in goals with 14 en-route to First Team All-SWL honors this spring. Sanderson earned her second straight first team all-conference honor this spring for the Bears.
Returning home to Colorado after out of state junior college careers will be Brooke Dudley of Loveland and Jessica Hill of Aurora. Dudley, a 5-foot-5 midfielder and defender earned Second Team All-Region IX honors as a sophomore at Western Nebraska Community College after receiving honorable mention all-conference honors while at Mountain View High School, where she graduated from in 2008. Hill tallied 11 goals as a freshman at Dodge City (Kan.) Community College last fall after her prep career at Eaglecrest High School.
Kimball, a 5-foot-9 midfielder, joined the Grizzly program in January after a semester at the University of Northern Colorado where she was a member of the institution’s club team. She was a two-year letter-winner at Bear Creek before that and will now be re-united with Sanderson and fellow former Bear Erika Bendele, one of the Grizzlies’ top defenders over the last two seasons.
Boyd is a few years out of soccer after playing only softball at Trinidad State Junior College before joining the Grizzlies for the 2009-10 season. She played in 27 softball games for the Grizzlies this past spring and was a letter-winner in both sports while at Green Mountain High School.
The Grizzlies begin fall practices Aug. 17 in preperation for their 2010 season-opener on Sept. 3 against Colorado State-Pueblo.
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