Goalie Opsal Knocks On Wood As CV Bears Limp Toward Playoffs
Central Valley goalkeeper Tasha Opsal, her last two soccer seasons shortened because of injuries, has remained injury free so far this year.
Six of the Bear junior’s teammates haven’t been as fortunate. As a result, a team that began the season 4-0 has limped toward its Greater Spokane League finish.
Shea Donaldson tore knee ligaments prior to the season. Then over three games, in a just a nine-day period in early October, starters Janna Usher, Lindsey Parker, Angie Foedisch, Rebecca Kochendorfer and Amy Pollock were sidelined either with knee or ankle injuries.
“The problem is they’re not little boo boos,” said Bears coach Craig Griffiths.
While CV practiced last week, these players sat by the field, all save for Donaldson, with ice bags at the ready.
Griffiths attributes the rash of injuries to the fact that the girls are constantly involved in sports, including fall soccer on club and high school teams that demands seven days a week.
“They go from one sport to another,” he said. “It’s great to be active but when injuries occur they don’t do a full recovery.”
Minor hurts lead to season-ending tears. Opsal can identify, although one of her injuries was freaky.
She suffered a fractured kidney in a collision almost a year ago to the week of CV’s latest rash of misfortune.
“It split right in half,” said Opsal, “and took 6 or 7 months to heal.”
The year before that she tore ankle ligaments and missed the final four games of the season.
“I’m not going for three years in a row,” she said.
Opsal, second-team all-GSL keeper last year despite missing much of the season, is a multipurpose talent. On her various teams she has either played in goal or at forward.
She has been spectacular at times in goal, twice against University. CV won a non-league encounter and lost in an overtime shootout. Opsal dove all over the place to keep the league runners-up scoreless in regulation.
A week earlier in the field, she scored CV’s first goal during a comeback win over Gonzaga Prep.
“It’s a team sport and we play people where it’s best for the team” said Griffiths. “Tasha is one of the best keepers in league and more experienced.”
Opsal been playing both positions for half of her 11 years of organized soccer. She said she likes the challenge when an opposing team shoots, but she also enjoys the idea of being an attacker.
Right now she’s one of the remaining healthy Bears trying to spur the team to its first playoff appearance in five years.
“I’d feel better if the original players were back,” Opsal said. “I think it will just take heart and if everybody wants to we can win.”
Griffiths concurs. He’s brought up three talented players from junior varsity to help flesh out the squad.
If the team won Friday or Gonzaga Prep lost to Mead, they’ll have finished fifth and meet U-Hi a third time in a Thursday playoff match.
“We’ll play hard soccer with the players we have,” he said. “We have talent on injured reserve, but we have talent on the field. They are too good a team.”
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MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: BAD TWIST Third time definitely was not a charm for University High soccer player Heather Sale. The Titan sophomore twisted her knee Oct. 15 against Gonzaga Prep, bringing back memories of the previous two years. “It twisted weird and I started screaming, ‘Brandon, Brandon,”’ the hysterical Sale said she cried to coach Brandon Deyarmin. Sale tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee in an eighth-grade soccer match. She tore the ACL in her left knee during a ninth-grade basketball game. Both required surgery. Tests have not yet revealed the extent of this current injury which was again to the right knee, but there is good news. “Doctors have ruled out the ACL,” she said. Had it been so, would the athletic career of the soccer, basketball and track athlete be ended? “If it’s cartilege and I can be back in two weeks, I’ll try to go in the playoffs,” she said. “If its surgery, I’ll fight through and play again.” Mike Vlahovich