Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Thursday, September 18, 2008
UW-L;s Clark ‘has a classic goalkeeper mentality’
 Senior Amanda Clark is in her third year as the UW-La Crosse women's soccer team's goalkeeper and second year as team captain. She has 13 career shutouts, third most in school history. Peter Thomson photo |
Amanda Clark gave life without soccer a try three years ago. She didn’t like it much.
“I’m a real competitive person,” Clark said. “I really wanted to be on a team again.”
Clark found what she was looking for at UW-La Crosse. The senior from Minocqua, Wis., is in her third season as the Eagles’ starting goalkeeper and second as team captain. Her 13 shutouts rank third on the program’s all-time list and she’s started all but two of the team’s games since 2006.
“She has a classic goalkeeper mentality,” Eagles coach Sara Burton said. “She’s competitive, but she’s a perfectionist. That translates to her leadership. I’d say she has very high expectations of those around her.”
Clark spent her first year of college at the University of Minnesota. She wasn’t on the soccer team, and used intramural volleyball and YMCA co-ed rec soccer to feed her competitive urges.
To watch Clark react after giving up a goal in practice Tuesday afternoon — angrily firing the ball back to a teammate to start the drill again — it’s easy to see why pickup games weren’t her speed.
“I’ve been playing sports since I can remember,” Clark said. “I think I needed to go to the University of Minnesota and not play soccer just to see what my life would be like without it ... and why live without it?”
Clark embraces her competitive side, although she said having too sharp an edge on it isn’t always good.
“I am that one step a little more competitive and at times it has presented problems to me,” Clark said. “I can get a little more down mentally and take myself out of the game because of it, but I think we’ve really worked on that a lot. It’s always what’s next — the next play, the next shot, where do I need to be.”
Clark talked to a high school friend who played soccer at
UW-L and started e-mailing Burton about joining the program. When Clark reported for practice, she tried out at both goalkeeper and midfielder.
Burton saw her as an apprentice to senior goalkeeper Stephanie Harbaugh. Clark appeared in two games in 2005 and has been a constant presence in goal for the Eagles since then.
“She’s athletic enough to play in goal or in the field for us, but her skills and her mentality really fit as a goalkeeper,” Burton said.
That mentality is stop everything, all the time. This season, she’s come close to achieving that. Clark is 3-1-1 with three shutouts and a 0.37 goals against average.
Clark was named WIAC Women’s Soccer Athlete of the Week-Defense on Monday after going 2-0-1 with shutout victories over Viterbo and UW-Superior. She stopped 13 of 14 shots, including a penalty kick that preserved the tie against
St. Thomas (Minn.).
“I think at the goalkeeping position you need to have that perfection mentality,” Clark said. “If you’re in the field and you screw up, you can just run hard and get back. If you screw up in goal, it’s a goal.”
Clark loves the pressure of playing in goal, but she doesn’t go out of her way to draw attention to herself. She’s not the type to dive for a ball when a reach will do, or carry the ball 30 yards out of the goal when an outlet pass is enough.
“She’s not flashy,” Burton said.
Clark said she’s worked on being a bit more aggressive and starting an attack once in a while. And she said she likes making “crazy saves” as much as anyone.
“It’s nice to go to bed and think, ‘Wow, I had a great practice today,’” Clark said. “But I do like to make the solid saves. I don’t want to flaunt anything. If I make the save, it’s a save.”
Clark also takes her leadership role on the team seriously. In addition to being a two-time captain, Clark serves as president of the UW-L Winner’s Council, a student-athlete advisory group.
“Leadership is not something you can force,” Clark said. “I fell into that role and I’m ecstatic that my teammates think I am a good leader. So leadership is just something I’ve always done, it comes kind of naturally.”
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