Southeast Missouri State soccer teams seek another major year from Minor

Natasha Minor's club soccer coach once told Southeast Missouri State coach Heather Nelson that Minor was the first player to arrive at a session and the last to leave.

That characteristic -- spending extra time on the turf or in the gym -- has become commonplace among great athletes, and coaches say that about their top players frequently.

But for Minor it took a little more time and effort.

Minor chose to forego playing soccer for her high school team as a junior and senior.

Instead, she and another girl from her hometown of De Pere, Wisconsin, would drive to club soccer practices in Milwaukee about two hours away three days a week.

The Redhawks' all-Ohio Valley Conference forward Natasha Minor takes a shot during Wednesday's practice at Houck Stadium.

On the weekends, the North Shore United Soccer Club team she played on would travel for games, including to a premier regional in St. Louis, where Nelson first watched her play and met her.

Now Minor, who goes by the nickname Tosh, is entering her junior season with the Redhawks.

Her dedication to her craft and her team's success has not wavered as she's continued to evolve into an elite Division I player for Southeast.

"It doesn't matter if we perform well or if we perform poorly. She's going to take whatever responsibility that needs to go along with that on her shoulders," Nelson said. "It never amazes me -- if we don't do well, she'll be one of the first kids to text me and tell me the things that she'll make sure she does better next time."

Nelson laughs before adding: "Even if she's played an amazing game. She's just that kind of kid."

Minor, a 5-foot-2 forward, has played in 16 games each of her first two seasons at Southeast.

As a freshman, she scored four goals, which tied for the team lead, and had four assists and was named to the Ohio Valley Conference's all-newcomer team and second-team all-OVC.

Last year, she finished with a team-best eight goals and six assists and was a first-team all-conference selection as the Redhawks shared the OVC regular-season title with SIU Edwardsville.

Nelson described Minor as a player with an, "endless amount of energy to please and to succeed," and said last year's OVC tournament semifinal loss to Jacksonville State was a game where that stood out to her.

Minor sustained a high ankle sprain during Southeast's comeback win against SIUE in the final regular-season game of the season and wore an ankle boot as she sat on the bench for most of the Jacksonville State game at Houck Stadium on Nov. 7.

Nelson admitted that Minor shouldn't have played, but after the Gamecocks took a lead, her team was in a bad position.

Minor came to Nelson and said, "Coach, I think I can give you 15 minutes." Her ankle was wrapped up tight and she was sent onto the field for the final 11 minutes of the game, helping Southeast threaten several times to score the equalizer before eventually losing.

"She played her heart out," Nelson said. "We created tons of opportunities just because she entered the game, and I felt the momentum change back to be on our side."

The outcome was unfavorable, but Minor showed her willingness to put the team before herself.

She continued to spend the offseason honing her skills, playing semi-professional soccer with the North Bay FC Wave, which is part of the Women's Premier Soccer League, in California.

"I think last year I definitely excelled from where I was as a freshman, and going to California it was an eye-opener to how fast and how great touches are on the ball," Minor said.

She still has two more seasons at Southeast, where she's a nursing student, but once she's finished playing collegiately she would like to attempt to play professionally.

"That's been my goal ever since I was like 10. It's been a dream," Minor said. "Playing semi-pro I think definitely helped with the confidence aspect of it."

Minor is constantly working on her own and asks the coaches for one-on-one time away from practice. Nelson said she, "tries to control every aspect that she can to be one of the very best players in the league."

"She is always looking at improving her tight touch, her ability to turn, and she loves working on her shots, too," Nelson said with a smile. "We think in our program that she is one of our best two-footed players. She's naturally a right-footed player, but if you watch her, I would say that more than half of the opportunities that she takes on goal is actually with her left foot, and that's very rare."

Nelson said many coaches who are right-footed, including herself, have the tendency to have their players focus more on the right foot, so left-footed players would be expected to be stronger at both. Instead it attests to Minor's time spent with the ball outside of practice that she's just the opposite.

Minor praises her teammates and their ability to distribute the ball to her as the reason she's led the Redhawks in goals the past two seasons. They know that she likes to make runs down the line and to have the ball played into space in front of her to either pass or shoot.

While she's known for her offense, it's her ability to wreak havoc on the opponent's back line when she's not in possession of the ball that gives her an edge.

"I think one of her biggest strengths is as a forward -- she has the ability to work both sides of the ball," Nelson said. "By that, I mean, she has a wonderful ability to defend. Forwards are typically players that work very hard going toward their own goal, but they work half as hard going back toward our goal. Tosh isn't like that.

"Tosh does everything that she can to disrupt the play -- nick a ball or pressure someone enough that another player in our program wins a ball. She's also the kind of kid that if she needs to lay her body out to get that last touch to find the back of the net, she'll do whatever she can to get on the end of it."

Nelson said this year's team has some of the most complete players she's ever coached in that her defenders have the ability to control the ball and start an offensive attack, the forwards are strong defenders and the midfielders are "an engine room that is just willing to work."

The Redhawks, who lost their lone exhibition game 2-0 to Memphis, travel to Rolla, Missouri, to face Division II Missouri S&T in the season opener at 6 p.m. tonight.

Southeast's home opener is at noon Sunday against Northern Iowa at Houck Stadium.

"I feel like we have more versatility, more depth, more talent," Nelson said. "We're fitter, we're quicker, we're better in the air and we're more physical than we've been in a long time. I'm very excited. If we can stay healthy, which is always something that's not within our control, we have a lot potential to do very well this season."