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“She plays the way you want everyone to play, just like it’s your last,” said Rogersville Head Soccer Coach Brett Wubbena.
With another season ahead, the last game is still a ways off for Rogersville junior Sophia Nixon, but you can’t tell by how she plays.
“She’s been the type of player that you can just get her the ball and she’s a workhorse,” Wubbena said. “She works harder than anybody out there.”
Her efforts led to early career success, as she set the single-game goal record as a freshman.
But her junior year performance has taken success to another level.
“It’s a ton of fun to watch her play,” Wubbena said.
Not for opponents.
Sophia tallied 56 goals during her junior season and became the program’s career hat trick leader with seven.
“The whole team knows if they can just get it somewhere up there I can get to it,” Nixon said.
That’s when Sophia kicks it into high gear.
“I wait for those moments, it’s just great and speed is a huge part of my game,” Nixon said.
But it’s not just Sophia’s speed that helped her surpass 100 career goals.
Her strength allows her to fight off defenders to create chances.
“Sometimes it’s a detriment. Sometimes she gets knocked off ball and it’s a foul, but we don’t get those calls because she’s so strong,” Wubbena said.
That strength means other teams bring a physical approach to defending her.
“It can be really frustrating, always having somebody touching you and having their arm on you or pushing you to the ground or whatever,” Nixon said.
So, Sophia uses that extra defensive attention to her team’s advantage.
“By me drawing the defenders, if I peel out sometimes, that leaves an open lane for somebody else to come in and get that goal themselves,” Nixon said.
Not all elite goal scorers have such an open-minded approach to helping their teammates.
That’s just one of about 100 reasons that make her this week’s Athlete of the Week.
