Road Less Traveled
September 03, 2008 01:20 PM | General
September 3, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Some take the road less traveled and that is true for senior Stephanie Burgess.
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| Stephanie Burgess has overcome her share of obstacles to play for her hometown West Virginia Mountaineers.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
She played varsity football on all the all-boys high school football team. The longtime Mountaineer fan graduated early to follow her dreams of playing collegiate soccer. However, she fell victim to knee injuries early in her career.
Yet, despite the setbacks, Burgess has batted the adversity like a champion and is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in this, her final year.
This season Burgess, who has been converted to forward from defense, is looking to fill a fourth forward void that Head Coach Nikki Izzo-Brown has been desperately looking to fill.
“Her pace is so good and so explosive still, her work rate, she works really hard and she can beat you on the dribble, but she’s also a great defender,” Izzo-Brown said. “Whatever way she can, she does, whether it’s 10 minutes, five minutes, or being a role player off the bench.”
The Morgantown, W.Va., native came out of high school a semester early and enrolled in the spring of 2005. Burgess was the first women’s soccer player to do so and since then only current freshman Morgan Betscher has followed a similar path.
Izzo-Brown has never been in favor of people leaving high school early, but believes certain people have the ability to do it.
“I don’t think you should rush your life, because it goes by too quick, but with her it made sense because she could get a little bit of the best of both worlds being from Morgantown,” Izzo-Brown said.
Burgess remembers it more as a whirlwind situation when one night she was a high school senior and the very next day a college freshman.
“I still live with my family right now, so it is really not that hard. It was definitely a weird transition. I graduated on a Friday night and then soccer started up that Saturday morning, so it all went by pretty fast.”
Graduating from University High, Burgess was not only a star on the soccer field - garnering first-team all-conference honors all four years - she also was a kicker for the Hawks football team.
“The previous kicker had graduated and the coach asked me if I wanted to kick and I said why not,” explained Burgess.
It was not always easy though as Burgess had to go to school and then go to football practice immediately after. She would then have to drive to where they practiced for soccer and do it all over again the next day. She will, however, be the first to tell you that all she knew to do on the football field was go out and kick the ball and run off the field. However, there is always that one instance when something goes wrong.
“The long snapper messed up the snap and the ball flew up over the holder's head and behind me,” Burgess laughed. “I went to run after the ball and heard my teammates screaming, ‘Don’t get it!’ I heard the coaches screaming, ‘Don’t get it!’ and the fans were all screaming, ‘Don’t get it.’
“I had no idea what to do and luckily ran away from it and the holder jumped on top of the ball as a whole group of guys jumped on top of him as he got smashed. I probably would have died if that had happened to me.”
Maybe that was a sign of the bad luck that was to come during her less-than-normal four years as she has underwent an ACL surgery and had her knee scoped once and managed to battle back from both of them.
“It has been really tough getting back onto the field, but I have persevered and it is really starting to pay off. I know that I just have to work really hard,” Burgess said.
Her coach can echo the word perseverance as that is the one would she uses to describe her.
“Just all of the things that Steph has had to overcome with being injured,” Izzo-Brown said. “The poor kid has been injured, injured, injured. To her credit, she always fights back, I’m just hoping this season we can keep her healthy and she can help contribute on the field. She’s definitely a leader and someone that I rely on to keep our attitude up and our motivation up. Even those injured years, she has been such an important part of the team and now I hope she gets a little bit back and gets to go out there and be healthy.”
Burgess most recently made her mark by logging some key minutes in the Inn at St. Mary’s Classic in Notre Dame against Santa Clara and Loyola Marymount, even recording a big scoring chance against nationally ranked Santa Clara.
“She created a really good opportunity for herself against Santa Clara,” Izzo-Brown said. “I thought she was going to get one when she was one-versus-one against the keeper. I give her a lot of credit for getting that opportunity and now she has to finish one against Tennessee.”
Burgess agrees that it would be great to be able to capitalize on one soon and earn her first career collegiate goal.
“I had a pretty good weekend and I am looking for it to continue and I am going to work hard. I definitely should have finished the play against Santa Clara, so I am hoping I can get that opportunity again.”
As a senior, Izzo-Brown reminds her leaders daily how important it is to leave everything out on the field and not regret anything as the practices and games are now limited.
“She always is talking to the seniors and telling us how many games we have left. She has been really good to us and I am really going to miss the whole team. We have been through so much together and we are so close.”
Burgess recently applied to dental school and hopes to be admitted so she can further her education after graduation next spring. As for now she will just be looking to build on last year’s team successes.
“It is going to be hard to match what we did last year, but we are going to try. Sure it would be great to go to the Final Four, but it was awesome winning the BIG EAST Championship last year and making it to the Elite Eight as well.”
