CAMAS — When this high school soccer season kicked off, Anyssa De Vera couldn’t have imagined it would conclude with her playing a central role in the Camas defense.
Heck, when the season started the senior wasn’t even part of the team. After committing in the spring to play college soccer for Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, De Vera decided that three seasons of high school soccer were enough.
“Part of the thing was I didn’t want to risk getting injured,” De Vera said, describing as “difficult” her decision not to play high school soccer as a senior. De Vera said that longtime teammates such as Fiona Samodurov — who also plans to play college soccer at Grand Canyon — said they understood her decision to sit out this season, but continued to ask her to change her mind.
She also figured a job, school, and occasional training sessions with the Portland Spartans FC women’s team would keep her plenty busy. But she quickly found that “the whole soccer part was missing.”
On Sept. 9, the day after watching Camas beat Prairie 1-0 in its home opener, De Vera walked into coach Roland Minder’s classroom and asked to join the team. The veteran coach was happy to welcome back a player who had played three varsity seasons and earned all-league recognition. But he didn’t want De Vera in her preferred center forward spot.
“Yes, she would like to play forward,” Minder said. “But I think she understands that the way she can help this team the most is where she’s at.”
Positioned next to fellow senior center back Mason Minder, De Vera has helped Camas become one tough team to score against. Heading into Friday’s state semifinal match against Issaquah, the Papermakers have 19 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw. They have posted 16 shutouts. Four of the seven goals scored against the Papermakers happened before De Vera was eligible to play in the seventh game of the season.
De Vera and fellow senior center back Mason Minder anchor an imposing wall in front of goalkeeper Julia Coombs.
“The two in tandem work so well together,” Coach Minder said. “Anyssa’s got a little bit more speed. She’s also pretty quick to the ball. She reads the game really well.
“I think there’s synergy there. The sum of the two is greater than the two individuals,” he added.
De Vera is now much more at home as a central defender than she was a couple of months ago. She plays bigger than her 5-foot-2 frame might suggest, consistently winning possession battles both in the air and on the ground.
“The first couple of games, honestly, I had no idea what I was doing,” she said. “I was just out there listening to Julia (Coombs) behind me, listening to Mason beside me and the other defenders. It was hard to adjust to everything.”
A big adjustment was the constant communication necessary to keep a defense correctly positioned. As a forward, all De Vera needed to think about was timing her runs through the defense to create scoring chances. In the middle of the back line, she is tethered to three other defenders and must also stay connected to midfielders in front of her.
De Vera still can figure in the attack. She goes forward on corner kicks, and has permission to take the ball forward when space and the positioning of her fellow defenders allow. But, after two months as a central defender, she said her instinct now is to return quickly to her defensive post.
And she is plenty happy to be there. De Vera will play her final two high school soccer games on Friday and Saturday in Puyallup. Should the Papermakers win twice, they will be the Class 4A state champions.
Had she not changed her mind in September, De Vera knows she would have missed something special. Not only an exciting playoff run, but especially the games and practices alongside girls she has grown up with.
“I think about it every game and almost every day. What if I wasn’t here?” De Vera said. “What if I wasn’t playing with these girls anymore? What if I didn’t have them as teammates?”
