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A look shows she's hooked

At age 5, soccer was something just to try, a way to run around. Now the sport is a passion for Springstead's Angela Passafaro.

By KELLIE DIXON
Published December 17, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Edmund D. Fountain] Springstead's Angela Passafaro, right, works out with JV player Chelsey Connolly.

SPRING HILL

Robert Bogus just needed one glimpse into Angela Passafaro's eyes to tell that the Springstead senior was for real.

If asked the question, others would just point to Passafaro's accolades; to the fact that she led the Eagles' soccer team as of Friday in goals 17 and assists (eight); the fact that she's often double and sometimes triple teamed; or the fact that she spends downtime during the game talking with her teammates about their play.

But Bogus, who played soccer professionally in Poland, looked a little deeper. He was more concerned with Passafaro's heart than her proven legitimacy on the field.

"You look at the player and you know if she wants to play or if she's just talking about it," said Bogus, who trains Passafaro once a week. "She does have a ton of passion to play this game. She loves it."

As far as Bogus is concerned, passion drives everything in life. It has fueled Passafaro's work ethic and her desire to play college soccer. The versatile forward and midfielder doesn't have any offers yet, but Passafaro hopes to hear from a college coach after her club team competes in the Orange Classic tournament near Miami.

Passafaro's love for soccer started when she first struck a ball at age 5. Her parents wanted their daughters involved in sports, so they signed up Angela and her sister Christina for a youth league.

Angela didn't really stand out among the clusters of players that swarmed after the ball.

But she stuck with the game.

Passafaro's dad, Steven, was the coach. He also coached Christina on a younger team. The older Angela got, the more she paid attention to the game.

Soon the chatter in the car before and especially after the practice or game focused almost exclusively on the sport. Sometimes Angela would ask her dad a question. Sometimes she would point out something to her younger sister. And sometimes she'd just listen to the two of them. Every mile was an educational experience.

"It was a time for one-on-one talking about what we did and everything," Angela said. "It was really helpful."

Soon the drives got longer. As an eighth grader, Angela joined the Black Watch Soccer Club in Tampa.

By this point, Angela realized she had fallen in love with soccer.

"Before, it was always you played soccer when you were younger because you needed a sport," Angela Passafaro said. "I just realized that soccer was more than something I did just to run. It was something I loved, and you can't picture your life without it at a certain point. That's when I decided I really wanted to do it ."

Her dad realized it, too. He saw Angela separating herself from the other players. Her field vision and her technique was improving. Her shot was strong, and she could bend it. Trapping the ball no longer was a challenge. She started to set her sights on college.

"Sometimes she drags me around now," Steven Passafaro said, joking.

Angela is around a soccer ball every day, though recently she has been more of a spectator because of a high ankle sprain she suffered in late November. Passafaro says she uses the sideline time to learn how to make better decisions.

Christina, who also plays varsity, said it was hard at first to adjust to playing without her sister on the field.

"She's been playing a long time, so she can read the game really well," Christina said. "She's pretty fast, and she's got a lot of good skills with the ball."

While Springstead coach Polo Furlong thinks her absence forced other players to pick up their game, he admits the team took a blow when she got hurt.

"When I play somebody, the first thing someone asks me, 'Is Angela going to play?'" Furlong said. "Just by her being out there, she has two or three players with her so that opens the game up to someone else."

Kellie Dixon can be reached at kdixon@sptimes.com or (352) 544-9480.

[Last modified December 16, 2006, 20:44:32]