`A GREAT TIME': JACKSON SCORES FIRST GIRLS SOCCER TEAM

Leslie Dalton tries to keep a teammate from stealing the ball from her during a practice last week.

Goalie michelle Millhany practices with a coach's assistant.

Addie Propst does 10 situps for not following directions

The dream of Jackson school girls having their own soccer team is now a reality. Coach Bonnie Noland led the appeal to the school board for five years to allow them to have a team for girls. And for five years the board declined -- until this year.

"It was time for a girls soccer team," Noland said, of the board's decision.

But Jackson isn't alone in soccer. This is also the first year for Poplar Bluff, Notre Dame and Cape Girardeau. In fact, the effort for a girls soccer team was a joint one with Cape.

There are two teams in Jackson, the varsity team, made of older girls, and junior varsity for the younger ones. The girls started playing March 21 and their 2-3 record isn't bad for their first season.

But everyone knows that there's more to life than winning.

Junior varsity teammate, Becky Dudley, 15, loves to play and is glad the new team finally came about.

"Mainly, I liked watching the boys play and that made me want to," she said, adding she's learned a lot already. "I've learned how to get around the people, fake and shoot."

The girls learn ball control, scrimmaging, practice shooting the ball and keeping it away from opponents.

But the most important thing Dudley has gotten from the team is "a lot of friends." Dudley enjoys the new team so much that she encourages the younger girls to come out for "a great time."

Despite the fact that there is a long-existing male soccer team, the board had repeatedly refused the request for an all-girls team. Noland said the board's excuse was a lack of interest, but said that was no excuse last year.

"Last year, if the board had approved, there would have been enough girls," said Noland. "I kept a group of the older girls together."

Despite the interest, the board again refused their request to start a team.

"They said the timing was wrong," Bonnie said. "But we weren't really clear what that meant."

Bonnie said the board's denial was confusing because soccer is the least expensive of all the other sports. But she says she doesn't want to sound like she has "sour grapes" and is happy the board changed its mind and has granted permission to have a team this year.

Besides, she always knew why Jackson needed a girls team.

"There are so many more girls playing sports these days," Noland said, adding that, until now, track was the only sport they could participate in after the junior varsity level.

The group of 36 girls included her daughter, Erika Noland, and she played a large part in Bonnie Noland's desire for there to be a girls team.

"Well, Erika graduates this year and I wanted her to play in a team before she graduates," Noland said.

But she didn't have to push her daughter into playing soccer.

"I've been playing since I was 5 years old," Erika Noland said. "And since I was in the eighth grade I've had a desire to play high school sports."

Erika Noland loves playing soccer especially.

"I like the competitiveness and it's like a natural high," she said.

While a feeling of rivalry and natural highs are good things, Erika has other reasons to be glad there was a team this year. There's a good chance she will play soccer for a college team at Trinity University in San Antonio or possibly even the University of Missouri at Columbia.

And there are a lot of younger girls who are enjoying the younger team. Nancy Humphries is the coach of the junior varsity team.

"We have a lot of girls that have never played and we are pleased at how quick they are progressing," she said. "They have a good time and it's also a learning experience. The girls are growing by leaps and bounds."

And Noland says she realizes that there's more to this than learning how to play.

"Any time girls, and guys for that matter, devote time to something like this they build character. It teaches more than how to play. It teaches them life skills and how to work together."