Senior Greta Dazer, a varsity girls soccer player at La Salle, began her career in preschool participating in Soccer Shots and then joining a recreational neighborhood team in Mt. Tabor.
Growing up around the sport, “I always used to watch Premier League with my dad when I was little in the mornings,” she said, and attributed her motivation to start playing to her older brother as well as her dad, who was a coach for her brother’s recreational team.
Her dedication grew during fourth grade when she joined the club soccer team Portland City United and hasn’t looked back since, continuing to play for their club today.
She originally made the La Salle varsity team sophomore year as a goalkeeper with the help of her experience playing goalkeeper in club, “I wasn’t anticipating to get playing time … I really wanted to play,” she said, hoping for whatever experience she could acquire.
Dazer worked hard in the summer before sophomore year, and despite her consistent position being goalkeeper, trained independently to become a center back, a new position that she hadn’t practiced thus far in the club season. “I’d never played defense, so I had to learn a lot of things,” she said.
Her player versatility was further ignited during a game when Dazer was put in as a defensive midfielder by her coach. Afterwards, “he was proud of me,” she said. “It just felt good knowing that.”
At La Salle, Dazer said they practice around three or four times a week, along with games which can either be once or twice a week.
For her club practices, she sometimes participates in keeper-specific training with specialized coaches, which consists of shooting drills and scrimmages to practice game-like scenarios. When practicing one-on-one drills “they get a breakaway, then you have to go up and it’s just you and the attacker, and they’re right in front of the goal,” she said. “You kind of have to just be big.”
Dazer said goalkeeping is different than a lot of people think, as “it takes a lot of positioning [which] is really important.”
The communication aspect and confidence is vital as well, “just going for every shot and being able to communicate with everybody else on the field is super important,” and “if you’re not confident, you can’t really bring yourself to go for any shots,” she said.
This season, Dazer is feeling “optimistic,” she said, attributing it to the fact that “we have really great freshmen and the roster is looking really good.”
She said that although the team has not been together for long and have not built closeness yet, “we’re getting there, and we’ve been doing a lot of bonding stuff.”
Following a tough game against Jesuit High School, Dazer described it as “kind of eye opening” because she said their performance exceeded their expectations and “everyone was so connected.”
She said a very helpful piece to building the positive pre-game environment was “dancing in the locker room, and just [being] super loud and energetic, even though we were going into a really tough game.”
She deeply values resilience and a team mindset when playing.
“If you pull up to your game and you’re just in a horrible mindset, and no one’s talking to each other, and everyone’s disconnected, you’re not gonna play as well,” she said.
One bonding experience the varsity team did this year was a beach retreat at the end of summer. “That was the first time we’ve ever done that on this team,” she said, getting closer to her teammates during the retreat by playing games, cooking dinner together, and talking.
“It was really fun,” she said. “I feel like I got to know everybody on a different, out-of-school level.”
Some of her favorite classes this year have been Spanish and Statistics as well as her Anatomy & Physiology class. “I have a good amount of friends in that class,” she said.
In the future, Dazer has taken an interest in pursuing a career in physical therapy or occupational therapy for kids with special needs.
In her free time, she really enjoys true crime documentaries, reality TV, and has recently been watching the show “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” and “Gilmore Girls.” She also listens to all kinds of Music — 70s, rap, rock, pop music, R&B, and indie rock — saying it depends on her mood.
