She’s A Keeper

Athletes do what they do out of love, and so does Angie Vulcano - though, frankly, a love this eccentric sometimes pops up in psychology texts.

“I just love,” she said, “the thrill of having balls kicked at me.”

Well, she’s certainly in the right place, isn’t she?

Quite possibly she knew it the minute she turned out for soccer at Rogers High School as a freshman four years ago.

“What position do you play?” the seniors asked her.

“Goalkeeper,” she replied.

“Guess you’ll be on the varsity then,” they said.

“You haven’t even seen me practice yet,” she protested.

“Doesn’t matter. We need a goalie. You’re it.”

You’re it. As in “Tag - you’re it!”

She is still it. Next fall, someone else at Rogers will have to be it, finally, though Angie Vulcano swears she’ll come around to make sure the Pirates find the perfect it.

Which, of course, they won’t. Because she is.

If it takes a special mentality to be a goalkeeper - and it does - then it’s an even trickier fit at a place like Rogers, where soccer success has been forever elusive and the only thing likely to wear out faster than a pair of goalie gloves is your sense of humor.

Here it is senior year and Vulcano still has hers.

“The nickname her freshman year was ‘Perma,”’ remembered Rogers coach Chris Sande, “for ‘perma-grin.’ No matter how bad it got, she always came up smiling.”

Truthfully, it got pretty bad.

And, truly, it is getting better. Midway through their season, the Pirates have won twice - doubling the number of victories they’d managed in the previous seven seasons. In victory, there is obvious relief - but a couple of recent one-goal losses to teams which used to routinely beat the Pirates 7-0 or 8-0 may be a better indicator of the program’s progress.

“It would have meant a lot to win more games,” Vulcano admitted, “but I realize now I’ve never seen our team work so hard. The aggressiveness, the teamwork, the talking - there’s just so much more of it there than there ever has been.”

That doesn’t mean it still isn’t a shooting gallery back there for Angie Vulcano - though, naturally, with the twist that she’s trying to get hit.

In a 2-1 loss to Gonzaga Prep last week, she made 15 saves - the Bullpups outshooting Rogers 21-2. Earlier this season, she had 22 saves in a 9-0 loss to University in which the disparity was 31-2.

That was somewhat of a bad-old-days number. In a U-Hi game Vulcano’s freshman year, the Titans got off 56 shots. In a 0-0 tie with North Central that same season, the Pirates were outshot 25-1. More than 10 times in the course of her career Vulcano has made more than 20 saves in a game.

The goalkeeper at Mead, meanwhile, might not get 20 chances in a month.

Our numbers are incomplete, but we do know that Vulcano’s saves total many more than 500 - 13 or 14 a game.

Only Jesus saves more than Angie Vulcano.

But the percentages play out in soccer, as in most games. Make 10 percent of 20 shots and you’ll beat the team that makes half of its two. And while a victory or a defeat is shared by the team, it’s the keeper who goes to sleep replaying each and every ball that got by.

“When I was younger, everytime a goal was scored I felt it was my fault,” Vulcano said. “I always thought I should have stopped it and I always felt terrible. I just felt like everybody was looking at me and thinking, ‘Why didn’t you stop that?’

“Now I know I can’t stop everything, but I’m sure going to try.”

What she is able to stop has convinced Sande that “she’s the best in the league - and I think other coaches think the same thing.”

Boys, too. She’s even taken the goal during some of their U-18 games on weekends.

Sande recalled putting his callow freshman in goal “because she was by far the most outstanding athlete we had on the team at that time - and Rogers being in the position we’ve been in, we needed our best athletes on defense.”

Injuries to her knees and Achilles tendon have robbed her of some of that athleticism, but not of the natural aggressiveness that Sande said “made her a shoe-in for the position.”

Natural? The one time Sande stationed her in the field, she broke her nose colliding with an opponent while trying for a header.

To be sure, Angie is not short for Angelic. Good-humored as she is, she will bark at teammates who are slow to mark opposing players or play the ball too passively.

It’s part of the job.

“Sometimes I’m too vocal, but it’s the only way to get the message across,” she said. “Sometimes they take it the wrong way, but we’ll sit down and talk it out and they’ll understand that I’m just trying to help them be the best they can. At least, I hope they understand.”

She does. As a sophomore, she was the starting catcher on the Rogers softball team which finished second at state. It remains the highlight of her athletic career, and yet …

“It’s fun to win and everything,” she said, “but soccer gives me more of a thrill. It’s more fun to play with people you love to play with.”

But wouldn’t she prefer to be just a tad less busy?

“Well, when the ball’s at the other end it’s nice because it means we’ve got a chance to score,” she reasoned. “But at the same time, I love being shot at.”

Crazy love, all right.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review