Notre Dame's Nelson selected Southeast Missourian Player of the Year in soccer

Soccer wasn't just a sport that Jordan Nelson started to play when she was 4 or 5 years old.

For Nelson, a forward who completed her junior year at Notre Dame in May, soccer became a staple in her life before she could even walk.

She was born with a soccer pedigree to Heather Nelson, the soccer coach at Southeast Missouri State, and Paul Nelson, Southeast's associate head coach.

"My rattle was actually two soccer balls," Jordan Nelson said, "so that kind of puts it in perspective."

Soccer has never been something she was forced into because from a young age she learned that she loved the sport as much as her parents did.

It wasn't until this year, though, that Jordan's passion for the sport became obvious, according to her mom.

That passion coupled with a high level of play made her the Southeast Missourian Player of the Year.

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Notre Dame’s Jordan Nelson watches her shot on goal during the Bulldogs’ Class 2 quarterfinal game against Rosati Kain. (Laura Simon)

Heather and Paul Nelson realized watching their daughter play soccer at a young age that she had the potential to play at a high level.

It was never a concern of if she would be good at soccer. The concern was that she'd grow tired of it, but that was never the case.

"It's kind of hard to get away from it at home, but we do," Jordan Nelson said. "We find time for family time and playing stupid little games or family things. Like soccer isn't an everything-type thing at home, but because we all love it we don't mind even if it is."

She tried as many different activities as she could as a kid -- softball, gymnastics, singing lessons and the clarinet, to name a few -- but soccer stuck.

"I love the adrenaline rush while playing," Jordan Nelson said excitedly. "I love having teammates surrounding me – I could never do a one-person sport. I just love the group of people that I'm with. It's just … I really like scoring. That's kind of a big thing for me. And just all the pressure, I guess."

Scoring was no issue for Jordan, who led the Bulldogs with 18 goals her junior season, but that wasn't all there was to her game. She also led the team with 13 assists.

"Sometimes with a player you know that when they get the ball that they're just going to come at you, that they're only going to do one thing," Notre Dame coach Jeff Worley said. "Jordan isn't that kind of player. If there's an open player then she's going to try and find them, and so you never know if she's going to pass or if she's going to shoot, and I think a player becomes more effective when they play in that manner."

That aspect of her game is something she takes pride in.

She likes to consider herself a play-maker rather than a scorer, someone who still can contribute to the team when she's not having success getting the ball in the back of the net.

Her 13 goals in 14 games as a sophomore were second-most on the team, but her two assists that year were a staggering difference from her total last year.

The improvement on the field came from a realization in the offseason.

"I think a big part of it, to be honest, is the group the she was with at Notre Dame was a group that she played other sports with," Heather Nelson said. "Basically the basketball team was the soccer team at Notre Dame, and for the first time in her life she spent a lot of time sitting in the basketball season and watching other people play, and I think it gave her a lot of time to reflect on what she was really very best at and most passionate about.

"So by the time she watched a lot of people and played a different role for the first time in her athletic career it was enough for her to go, 'You know what, I am pretty talented at soccer and this is what I should be doing.' And I think she basically caught on fire her junior year because of that."

It also helped that she didn't miss time because of injuries, which she'd struggled with during her freshman and sophomore seasons -- injuries caused by an attribute that helped her stand out on the field.

"She's a really explosive kid in terms of really quick off the mark and fast over a distance, and at the end of her freshman year she had a hip flexor injury where she actually pulled part of the bone off her hip at the end of the season, and that ended her season," Heather Nelson said. "And in her sophomore year she had something somewhat similar that only happens to really explosive kids – she separated, in her hip area again, a growth plate, which she actually played through, but she was probably used very, very sparingly for about a month at the end of her season.Then this year Jeff Worley was just great at working with us to balance some of her indoor sessions and things with pool workouts at SEMO."

This year she played in all 22 games to help the Bulldogs to a 19-2-1 record and the Class 2 state quarterfinals for the third year in a row.

"She was more near 100 percent game in, game out, and then with that – when you're more healthy you're a much more confident player," Worley said.

Jordan Nelson's confidence on the soccer field and calmness in pressure situations was evident early on to her mom, who coached her team until she was 11 or 12 years old.

"I would say since a young age when I coached her in the early years, she would be our go-to," Heather Nelson said. "She would be a kid that could get a goal for us in a very competitive game or a comeback goal. The other thing is ever since a very young age she's always loved penalty shots, as well. And I think she is very calm in those situations. I think she has a good idea, or good sense, of what her personal abilities are, and in certain environments she knows that she can be a difference-maker."

The love of penalty shots translated to her career at Notre Dame -- Jordan's first varsity goal was a penalty kick her freshman year, and her favorite memory from this season was when she scored the game-winning penalty kick against St. Pius X in the Bulldogs' first game of the season.

"What I remember most about that PK specifically is after I made it I turned around and my whole team was just rushing towards me," Jordan Nelson said, a smile stretching across her face. "There's no greater feeling than knowing your team's happy with you. Just celebrating together – it was just a great feeling. It was awesome. I loved it."

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Jordan Nelson - Notre Dame

There is one thing that Jordan hasn't gotten in her career yet, which is that coveted state title that every high school athlete dreams of.

For Jordan, that dream will have to come true at a different school than the one she's played at the past three years -- Jackson.

The Nelsons moved into the Jackson School District, and that is where she will be going to school and playing soccer for her senior year.

"I'd really like to do that one year, and I guess I've only got one year left so it's kind of my only year," Jordan Nelson said. "It's always been kind of a dream of mine, but then again it's everyone's. Only a few people make it there but hopefully the team that I'll be with next year -- my Jackson team -- will make it."

Jackson soccer coach Justin McMullen also is a coach with the Nelsons' Southeast Missouri Soccer Club and was one of the first coaches that Paul Nelson mentored.

"I think it'll be a great fit for her, and Notre Dame was a great coaching fit, too," Heather Nelson said. "I think she's been blessed with great coaches and good character people around her."

Jordan's soccer career will likely continue in college, but she hasn't made a decision yet, and that decision is entirely up to her, her mom said.

Whether or not she chooses to become a Redhawk and play for her parents at Southeast is not something the Nelsons are concerned about.

"I think that she will end up playing NCAA Division I if she stays in the state, and she's very family-oriented, so I would say that Southeast Missouri State is certainly one of the schools that's on the table for her and one that she has interest in," Heather Nelson said. "And if not, I can definitely see her staying regionally – maybe a Murray State or SIUE or something within the comfort zone of where her family is."

Jordan also is considering the University of Victoria in Canada, where she has family members in Victoria, British Columbia.

So how does her mom feel about competing against her if she choses to attend an Ohio Valley Conference school that isn't Southeast?

"Yeah, actually I've thought about that and I don't like it, to be honest," Nelson said with a laugh. "But I will deal with it if that's what her choice is."

She said she could also see Jordan playing soccer at OVC foe Austin Peay. Austin Peay coach Kelly Guth played for the Nelsons at Florida State University and was an assistant coach under Heather Nelson at Southeast. She also was Jordan Nelson's nanny when she was first born, probably around the time she started holding that soccer ball rattle.

Jordan doesn't know where soccer will take her, but she does know that the sport she was introduced to before she could walk will remain something she does until she no longer can.

"All I know is I want to hopefully get a scholarship somewhere and just keep playing until, I guess, I can't walk anymore," she said. "That's kind of how it goes."