SYRACUSE - Wawasee junior Mallory Rondeau may take her soccer a little more seriously than others.
Beginning the game around the age of 4, Rondeau has found it difficult to get away from it, which is evident when watching her on the field."She has control and she knows when to use it," Wawasee girls soccer coach Dodd Cunningham said about Rondeau. "When she beats her defender, her technique is so good. She uses her speed, and once the defender catches up, she can slow down, dribble the ball behind the defender and accelerate past her again. She has a great change of pace."
With so many ways to beat a defense, Rondeau has her sights set on Wawasee's scoring records.
As a sophomore, Rondeau scored 22 goals, just one behind Brennan McAdams' 2008 school record of 23. McAdams also has the school's overall goals record of 58, which Rondeau will challenge as she currently has 42, having scored 17 this year.
"Speed is a big part of it, and experience with how to stay in control and get good touches," Rondeau said about her knack for scoring.
That experience comes from being a part of the first Wawasee Storm travel team when she was 9 years old.
"The first year, we didn't have a girls team, so I had to play with the boys," she said.
After playing with the Storm, she moved on to join the Warsaw Wave, then FC Indiana out of West Lafayette, before joining the Fort Wayne Fever.
"Clubs are separated by better competition, but I moved from the West Lafayette club to Fort Wayne mainly because of location," she said.
Playing club soccer means you play the sport all year long, which is what Rondeau has been doing.
"Mallory's an all-around player, playing club ball and taking it very seriously," Cunningham said.
Rondeau's been starting games for the Warriors since she was a freshman, which could have been tough, considering Wawasee was coming off a season in which it reached the semistate.
Instead of being overcome with playing along with the likes of McAdams, Ashlee Ort and Kylee Ort, Rondeau fit right in, scoring 13 goals in her first year.
"It wasn't that bad fitting in with the older girls," Rondeau said. "I wasn't really intimidated, because I'd been playing with older girls in club. However, I was afraid to say things to them, thinking they wouldn't listen."
As a leader on the team now, the other girls are listening and benefiting from the attention shown to Rondeau.
As with any prolific goal scorer, opposing teams will look to mark that player, meaning a designated defender will follow him or her all over the field. Sometimes, as is the case with Rondeau, a mark, plus another defender will keep an eye on the goal scorer.
"I'll have at least one girl following me all over the field and one behind to mark up," Rondeau said. "It's frustrating, but at the same time, I've learned to cope with it and been able to find ways around it. When I'm man-marked, it's going to leave other girls open."
Having already coached McAdams, Cunningham has seen the negatives and positives of having an offensive player being shadowed.
"Really, the team needs to identify it and give support," he said. "We have (sophomore) Alexis Blunk, who's been feeding off of it. She's another quick player and she's had opportunities."
Rondeau's soccer skills have also opened up collegiate opportunities.
For now, she's weighing her options between attending a Division-I school or attending a smaller, Christian school.
"God is very important to me," she said about making the decision.
And while scoring goals is always fun, winning is even more fun for Rondeau.
"We try to keep the scoring pretty balanced on the team," she said. "For me, an assist is as good as a goal. A goal is a goal. If we're winning, I don't care who scores."
