The biggest question mark for the Ohio soccer team entering the 2006 season was the goalkeeper position. With only one returning player who had seen any action in goal, the 'Cats brought in a trio of freshman keepers to try and turn that question into a statement.
Dominique Wright, who came to Athens from Albuquerque, N.M., is solidifying her position as the starting goalkeeper this fall. Wright has played nearly 926 minutes in goal thus far and hasn't left the net in the past 380 minutes.
Wright is 4-3-1 heading into the Bobcats' (8-8-1, 6-3-1 Mid-American Conference) final game of the regular season Thursday. Coming in as a freshman, she was forced to rely on her extensive club and high school experience to guide her.
Wright moved to New Mexico from her hometown of Durango, Colo., and played two years of high school soccer and two years of club soccer, choosing to play exclusively for the Rio Vista 88 Showcase squad her sophomore and senior years.
After helping her club team to two New Mexico state titles, Wright was recruited by schools like Harvard, Stanford and Colorado College, which topped Ohio earlier this year. Ohio coach Stacy Strauss said Wright immediately stood out.
She's very imposing
Strauss said. I thought she had good upper body strength and would be able to make the transition pretty quickly into the college game.
With a slew of other offers, it was a phone conversation with Ohio assistant coach Jim Welch, a former Major League Soccer player and All-Midwest region goalie out of Marquette, that sold Wright on joining the Bobcats.
I got a call from Jim and we just started talking she said. He was funny
and we just started bonding right away.
Wright also made it clear that Welch's eccentricity didn't stop at the recruiting process.
Jim is an amazing character
she said. I love training with him. We'll be out at a goalkeeping session
one on one
and he'll just start singing these random songs.
Regardless of the methods, Wright has put up two shutouts and tallied 47 saves this year under Welch's tutelage. The freshman keeper called the individual attention a plus but also said that goalies are always kind of on their own.
A lot of people would say that goalkeepers are a different breed
she said. They think of us as more of the crazy
weird type.
The crazy, weird stereotype can go a long way in describing some of Wright's off-the-field activities. This winter she plans to try skydiving with her cousin, who has already accompanied her on a few other leaps of faith.
We're like brother and sister
she said. We've gone rock climbing together
and when we were around 11 (years old) we cliff dived. We actually jumped off a cliff into a river; there were rapids and everything.
Appropriately, it was this same cousin, Omar Haner, who introduced a young Wright to the game she loves.
One day we were just goofing around on the street when he hit this shot at me
