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player ready...Wheeler’s Lyric Green played 22 games last season and scored at least one goal in all but one — the Class A state championship game.
It took an offsides call in double overtime for her to not score, with the Bearcats going on to lose 1-0 to Evansville Mater Dei.
Green, the Post-Tribune girls soccer player of the year, could have dwelled on the call. Instead, she jumped right into her club season with the NWI Lions United two days later.
“I do think it was the right call, it just hurt at the time,” Green said. “Personally, I really think that game pushed me to get it going again and to work as hard as I’ve ever worked before and to push myself harder than I’ve ever pushed myself. I couldn’t keep being upset about it.”
Green’s junior year was her biggest leap forward, with 44 goals to place fourth in the state, according to MaxPreps, and 13 assists.
Wheeler coach Bryan Murray gave all the credit to the fourth-year starter for turning herself from a “tiny freshman with no left foot” into a prolific scorer and a second team all-state selection.
“She’s a finisher, plain and simple, and not everyone is that,” Murray said. “The goals and assists she gets are awesome and her ability to make plays is uncanny, it’s just what does.
“How she got from where she was a freshman to what she did last year comes from a very disciplined and dedicated work ethic. She’s really transformed herself over the last few offseasons into the soccer player she is now.”
Green had a season when everything clicked. What to do for an encore is something that Murray noticed was troubling Green some in the offseason.
“The biggest coaching job for me with her is just her mindset and how to approach this year after a monster year and to let her know that hard work is going to produce results,” Murray said. “Last year was last year and you really don’t duplicate a year like that. She’s still a feared player regardless of what goal numbers she puts up. She’s a factor every night we play.”
It’s easy for a star player like Green to focus on her numbers, but that’s never been the case as Murray calls her the “ultimate teammate.”
“People are like, ‘Oh you have like 40-some goals!’ but I really don’t care, I just want to be successful with my teammates,” Green said. “I have great teammates and having such talented players like Claudia (Philips) and Riley (Garcia) up front with me helps a lot because we all play so well off of each other.
“I haven’t really thought about individual stuff, but more about getting back to where we were. I really think this team can get back to state as long as we work really hard and work with each other.”
CJ Peters is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.