Crown Point’s Zoey Wells could be the oldest player on the field for once.
Since her early years in the sport, Wells has always played on a field full of older kids.
“It ended up helping me, honestly,” she said. “Having to play against those better girls always taught me what I had to do to advance, what I had to get good at from a younger age so I could keep up with them.”
That experience is one reason the senior forward has developed into the focal point of Crown Point’s attack this season.
Wells’ soccer career started when she was 6, and the pattern of playing with older kids started soon after so she could be teammates with her sister Grace, who graduated from Crown Point in 2021.
“I always played up with my sister,” Wells said. “When I turned 8, I was playing U12. And every time my sister moved up a division, I’d play with her. I was always the youngest and the smallest on the team.”
Keeping the sisters as teammates provided obvious logistical benefits for the Wells family. Those teams also were closer to home than some clubs where Zoey Wells could’ve played in her age group. That had other benefits, according to her father, Zac, the defensive coordinator for the Crown Point football team.
“She was always more dedicated to two sports, basketball and soccer,” Zac Wells said. “Some kids specialize early and play a more national travel schedule, but hers was more localized. And we think the experiences she gained from being a multisport athlete are going to benefit her in life.”
By Zoey Wells’ sophomore season, she was a varsity fixture for the Bulldogs, finishing with a team-high 11 assists and ranking second with 11 goals.
She said her success that season opened her mind to a future in the sport beyond high school.
“I felt like I got a taste for it,” she said. “I had a really good season, and it was like, ‘OK, I can keep doing this.'”
She followed that up with 18 goals and 11 assists last year and has high hopes for her senior season after spending the summer attending multiple camps at colleges with players from around the country.
“Just seeing all the drills that they did, they’re similar to the ones we do in high school,” she said. “But they’re much more technical, much more advanced in how they do it because they’re more advanced players.”
“Technical” is a word Wells used frequently when describing her offseason work.
“I’ve been working on my technical skills — just being able to keep the ball close to me, being able to dribble and working more on my right foot,” she said.
That technical ability makes Wells dangerous on the field.
“When she’s one-on-one, she’s smart about knowing what her advantages are,” first-year Crown Point coach David Bock said. “She doesn’t overcomplicate things. She knows that if she can get a defender to stop, her first step is going to be faster than theirs. And she’s so strong too.”
Bock said Wells will be just as important to the Bulldogs in another role.
“We’ve seen her blossom as a leader,” he said.
Wells knows her success on the field is often the result of a group effort.
“It’s not a one-person game,” she said. “When you can connect with your teammates, it makes your job so much easier. I couldn’t do that without them.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.