SUPER CENTEX GIRLS' SOCCER: Repeat winner Brianna Johnston raised bar

Home: » Waco Sports » Waco High Schools

RSS

SUPER CENTEX GIRLS' SOCCER: Repeat winner Brianna Johnston raised bar

By Will Parchman
Tribune-Herald staff writer

Saturday April 23, 2011

It was simple arithmetic, the kind Brianna Johnston could easily work out in her head.

Sixty-one plus 39 gets you to a clean 100.

Working that formula out on a soccer field, though, didn’t seem quite so simple.

“At the beginning of the season, (Lorena coach Steve Glaser) was like, ‘You need to hit 100 (goals),’ and that was 39 more,” Johnston recounted. “I was like, ‘You’re crazy, there’s no way that can happen.’

Brianna Johnston is the Super Centex Player of the Year for the second straight season.
Duane A. Laverty / Waco Tribune-Herald

“But then I got closer and closer.”

Johnston’s ever-expanding goal tally finally burst the 100 mark this year, leading her to yet another Super Centex Player of the Year nod.

It’s the junior’s second straight year to take home the honor.

“It’s good because a lot of people last year didn’t think I could do it,” Johnston said. “To prove myself again was good.”

For the few if any naysayers left who stuck around to watch Johnston this year, she put on an entertaining show.

She entered the year with 61 goals through her first two seasons, 32 scored as a freshman and 29 in an injury-shortened sophomore year.

For her third act, she pressed the attack with renewed vigor, scoring a Central Texas-best 44 goals and providing 16 more assists.

After three years, Johnston already has 105 career goals.

Perhaps most importantly, she helmed Lorena, one of the smallest Class 3A schools in the state, to the regional quarterfinals, one win away from the regional tournament.

Lorena was one of only two 3A schools to make the state’s final 32 in the 4A classification that includes 3A schools in soccer.

Only multisport powerhouse Abilene Wylie got as far.

“I knew that (Johnston) was, along with the rest of the team, determined,” Glaser said. “They knew what it felt like not to make the playoffs.”

Johnston didn’t do it alone. She drew double teams last year, but the defensive pressure only grew in tandem with her notoriety this year.

It was fortunate, then, that Johnston’s rise coincided with that of sophomore forward Kaitlyn Wallace.

Wallace’s breakout year took some pressure off Johnston and forced defenses to keep a keen eye on both.

“It helped me a lot, because if I was getting double- or triple-teamed, I could pass it off to her and we could work from there,” Johnston said.

The effect was devastating on defenses. In Lorena’s first district game of the year, Johnston put five goals past Gatesville herself.

So much for stopping her. Slowing her down didn’t seem to work, either.

“It was our first district game, and we knew we had to win to go to the playoffs,” Johnston said. “I was just shooting and shooting and I kept attacking. It was successful.”

The irony in Johnston’s individual success is that she is painfully modest. Her initial inability to conceive a 39-goal season, despite not having done it before, had more to do with her aversion to the spotlight than her ability to get there.

“Any time I brag on her, or any time I tell her she can do this or she can do that, she’s just kind of reluctant because she doesn’t want to be bragged upon,” Glaser said. “I knew she could do it.”

So it isn’t entirely surprising when Johnston only offers a meek “yeah” when asked if she can make it three in a row next year.

Allow Glaser to speak for her.

“She knows I’m proud of her,” Glaser said. “She just hates it because I’m always bragging about her.”

Coach of the Year: Steve Glaser, Lorena

As the coach of a Class 3A soccer team, the odds were stacked against Steve Glaser before he coached his first game.

Swept into a classification with 4A schools, 3A soccer programs statewide rarely make serious inroads in district play, let alone in the playoffs.

Under Glaser this year, the Lady Leopards were a very serious exception.

For leading Lorena to the regional quarterfinals, a run that included the school’s first-ever playoff win, Glaser is this year’s Super Centex Coach of the Year.

“It’s as much (the players’) award as it is my award,” Glaser said. “They had to step on the field and they had to perform.”

Glaser started the girls’ soccer program at Lorena five years ago with a handful of talented players but with no experience to speak of.

As the program gathered momentum, gradually covering new milestones by the year, Glaser began seeing the fruits of his labor pay off.

The culmination came this season.

It’s a typical problem among most 3A programs, but Glaser overcame a tremendous lack of depth.

“We don’t have very much depth, and that’s what hurts us,” Glaser said. “I can have a couple defenders that I can put out there and maybe one forward I can put out there, but as far as my midfielders, they play 80 minutes every game. They don’t ever get a break.”

Perhaps the earliest — and most stark — indication that Lorena had turned a corner was a 1-0 victory over Robinson in district this year.

Over the last nine years, Robinson has been a paragon for local 3A programs, making nine straight playoff appearances as one of the most consistent programs in the area despite its classification.

But not even Robinson has gone four rounds deep in the playoffs.

The Lady Leopards notched impressive playoff wins over La Vega, Nacogdoches and Palestine before falling in a 3-1 heartbreaker to Huntsville.

Glaser hopes Lorena isn’t done blazing trails just yet. He returns all but one player from this year’s team, including Johnston.

But for the numerous hurdles the team jumped this year, the 2011 Lady Leopards will always have a special place in Glaser’s memory.

“Holy smokes, this was a dream season,” Glaser said. “I couldn’t have pictured it. . . . We’re a small team and made it that far. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

Newcomer of the Year: Alexis Barragan, University

A strong freshman campaign is a rite of passage in Alexis Barragan’s family.

That she kept her her eye trained on the Super Centex Newcomer of the Year award might be a slight understatement.

Before Barragan’s stellar 2011 freshman season, cousins Jimmy, Dominick and Lundon Gutierrez all won Super Centex Newcomer of the Year honors in their inaugural high school seasons.

Fast starts are a family tradition.

Last year was Lundon’s turn. Barragan will keep the award both in the University family and her own this year.

Thanks to her 20 goals and 15 assists, Barragan is this year’s Newcomer of the Year.

“It means a lot because before me, my family has been getting it,” Barragan said.

University coach Mike Chapman has had to hand the keys to an increasingly young cast as the Lady Trojans’ youth movement takes over the program.

With Lundon to lean on, Barragan wasted little time getting acclimated.

“I didn’t really know any girls except my cousin,” Barragan said. “We became a family and started working more as a family throughout the year.”

Barragan began the year in the midfield, but forward Kaitlin Escobedo went down with an injury in the middle part of the season.

In a nod to Barragan’s versatility, she was moved up the park to forward, an admittedly comfortable move that helped settle her into the groove of high school soccer.

“(Chapman) taught me a lot while I was forward, because I would just pass it back like I was playing (midfield),” Barragan said. “So I had to really adjust to forward and actually score.”

Barragan’s goals played a key role in University’s banner year. The Lady Trojans won their first ever district title this year, and while they crashed out of the playoffs in the first round, Barragan appears to be leading University’s youthful revolution.

“It felt scary at the beginning, but we just started working as a team,” Barragan said. “They helped me out a lot.”

wparchman@wacotrib.com

757-5711

2011 SUPER CENTEX GIRLS’ SOCCER TEAM

Player of the Year: Brianna Johnston, Lorena

Newcomer of the Year: Alexis Barragan, University

Coach of the Year: Steve Glaser, Lorena

Pos	Player	Class	School
FIRST TEAM
F	Hadley Young	Jr	Belton
F	Brianna Johnston	Jr	Lorena
F	Kaitlyn Wallace	So	Lorena
F	Anna Dorsett	Jr	Midway
MF	Carina Dunnahoo	Sr	Belton
MF	Aleah Davis	Jr	Midway
MF	Lundon Gutierrez	So	University
D	Makala Paschal	Sr	Midway
D	Emily Wiley	Jr	Temple
D	Kaitlin Meske	Sr	Waco High
GK	Tabitha Hooten	Sr	Robinson
Honorable mention
Kelsi Darr, Belton; Kayla Granado, Megan Honey, Abbie Minnix and Sumner Myers, China Spring; Cathy Arevalo, Emmy Dickson, Mariah Griffin, Lizzie Lamar, Lauren Marteney, Cassidy Stigliano, Brenna Vonasek and Alex Warren, Lorena; Cameron Carter, Midway; Abbi Hope, Robinson; Abby Blunt, Temple; Leslie Lugo, Gabby Ramon and Allison Thomas, University; Alicia Flores, Daniella Ramirez and Sydney Redding, Waco High