COURTESY OREGON SPORTS INFORMATION DEPARTMENT (L)
JIM SCHANZENBACH / SAINT MARY'S COLLEGE (R)
Oregon's Nicole Garbin, left, and Saint Mary's Chelsea Montero, far right, were named to conference all-star teams.
Soccer players
making elite listsWest Coast and Pac-10 All-Star
teams are sprinkled with names
of former Hawaii high school players
It is the payoff for years of devotion and emotion, years of sweat and pain.
Three female soccer players from Hawaii were chosen this past week among the brightest stars in two of the nation's premier college conferences.
>> Saint Mary's (Calif.) senior Chelsea Montero, a 2000 Kamehameha Schools graduate from Mililani, was chosen by coaches to the All-West Coast Conference first team.
>> Oregon sophomore Nicole Garbin (Baldwin '01 of Wailuku) was chosen by coaches to the All-Pac-10 Conference second team.
>> Loyola Marymount (Calif.) senior Shari Nishikawa (Iolani '00 of Kaneohe) was chosen by coaches to the All-West Coast Conference second team.
Nishikawa is one of 12 players in WCC history to make all-conference teams for three years (first team as a freshman in 2000 and second team in 2002).
Just playing soccer in the Pac-10 or West Coast Conference is a considerable achievement. Nine teams from the two leagues won bids to the NCAA Women's College Cup championship tournament. Portland of the WCC is defending national champion.
Earning the recognition of opposing coaches, especially when their teams were low in the standings, is especially significant.
SAINT MARY'S assistant coach Stacy Shaw said Montero, a four-year starter "has unbelievable ball skills and wonderful vision of the field. She could do whatever she needed to do to get out of any situation."
Analyzing her career, Montero said, "It is an amazing feeling of accomplishment."
"I'm not quitting by choice," she said, "they only let you play four years.
"Only right now do I realize how much I love the game," Montero said. "Like they say, you don't know now much you love something until it's gone.
"Not another fall, another camp, another spring practice, another game at home ...
"It went by so quick ... in a blink the four years are gone. I would tell the lowerclassmen, 'Play every year like it's your last year.' "
Montero was honorable mention All-WCC in 2001 and 2002. "I'm stuck with a feeling of 'What if?'" she said. "What if I had stayed in one position all four years? What could I have accomplished?"
She was moved from defender to central midfielder and back to defender as Saint Mary's changed coaches and defensive philosophies.
"Those are tough transitions," she said. "The type of running is so different" at the different positions.
"In retrospect, I'm happy with the things I could control," she said.
Montero's soccer career, which began when she was 7, may not be finished. She said she has accepted an invitation to play in a semipro league in Sydney, Australia, this summer.
"I just couldn't imagine not having soccer in my life," she said.
GARBIN LED the Pac-10 in shots (70) and ranked in the top 10 in assists (fourth, 7), points (seventh, 21), goals (ninth, 7) and game-winning goals (eighth-tie, 2).
Her 21 points, 70 shots and seven assists set or tied Oregon season records.
Garbin ended the season with the third two-goal performance of her career in the Ducks' two-overtime loss to second-ranked UCLA, 3-2, last Sunday.
Garbin's 12 goals in 37 games is tied for third on Oregon's career list.
After setting an Oregon record in game-winning goals as a freshman in 2001, Garbin tore her left anterior cruciate ligament in preseason of 2002 and was granted a medical redshirt season.
Though her ACL was torn 90 percent through, Garbin said she never doubted she would recover. "I knew I would come back at full strength," she said, "in fact I feel like I'm stronger. It doesn't give me any problems."
And to prove she was whole, Garbin was named Pac-10 Player of the Week on Sept. 22.
NISHIKAWA PLAYED the final month of the season with a hip flexor injury. "There was pain with every stride," she said. "You have to suck it up and keep going.
"I feel like I'm abusing my body, but it's worth it," she said, because "the joy and glory of being on a team and winning is a really good feeling. The other people on your team are going through the same thing. You win together and lose together, you don't lose by yourself."
Nishikawa led Loyola Marymount (8-8-3) in shots (35), goals (5, including three game-winners) and points (12).
She ends her career ranked seventh on the Lions' career assists list with 10.
Nishikawa has been playing soccer for 14 years, since she was 7 or 8, and says she wants more. She will go to graduate school in California for pre-veterinarian training and try to play in a semipro league.
Her eventual goal is to work with wild animals at the Honolulu Zoo.
Among others recognized in the past week:
>> New Mexico Highlands freshman Kim Unten (Pearl City '03) was chosen All-Rocky Mountain Conference second team.
>> Pacific (Oregon) senior forward Moani Lau (Kamehameha '99 of Kahala) was chosen on the All-Northwest Conference second team.
College Cup update
BYU sophomore Charlene Lui is the only player from Hawaii who has advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Women's College Cup.BYU upset 10th-seeded Colorado on Thursday and eliminated Idaho State and Jen Loo (Mililani '03) yesterday 2-0.
On Thursday, Loo made one of the Bengals' five tie-breaker kicks to beat Mountain West champion Utah in what a team spokesman called "the biggest win in the history of the Idaho State program by far." It was the first time the Bengals advanced to the NCAA's second round.
"Any fan of (Loo's) should be proud of the way she has played for us this year," added Derek Smolik, the Idaho State assistant sports information director.
Ashley Doi (Mililani '02) is a freshman reserve with Pepperdine, which plays fourth-seeded UCLA today for a spot in the final 16.
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