Gentry junior off to sizzling start on field

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

— Boys will be boys. Girls will be girls.

Then there’s Ana Palacios, who has no problem showing up her male counterparts on the soccer patch.

Palacios, a junior forward for the Gentry girls soccer team, is emerging this season as one of the biggest stars in the 4A-1 Conference. But her workout routine during the off season to become so dominant wasn’t an expensive regimen or club team. With the exception of gasoline cost, it was actually quite cheap.

She spent her summer playing pickup games against friends in Gentry and Siloam Springs, but those friends were all male and Palacios feels that’s what made her better.

“During the summer, I played a lot of soccer against guys, and it made me faster and stronger,” Palacios said. “A lot of myfriends told me I could play on a team of all guys, and one even told me I’m like one of his ‘idols’ because, for a girl, I play as good as a guy.”

In only eight games this season, where the Lady Pioneers were 4-4, Palacios had already scored 11 goals with three assists. Compare that to last season as a sophomore, when she felt she wasn’t a solid player, but still managed 13 goals.

Also improved this spring is her leadership for Gentry, constantly vocalizing on the field, helping put her teammates in position to succeed.

Palacios said the reason for the more advancedleadership skills is that she didn’t feel like she was good enough last season to tell teammates what to do - it was only her second year to play organized soccer. This season, however, she recognizes her talents, much to the pleasure of Gentry coach Fabrizio Campagnola.

“For a 10th grader to score 13 goals? That’s great,” said Campagnola, now in his second season with the Lady Pioneers. “But this year, besides the goals she scores, she’s willing to sacrifice, has great vision and can send a long pass from one side of the field to another.”

Leg strength is justanother one of those attributes enhanced during the summer playing with the guys. Campagnola said Palacios is bound to score plenty more goals throughout the course of her career, still with 12 games to go this season, but what she really needs to fine-tune is her footwork and dribbling the ball.

Already expected to be a college-caliber player, improved timing of her dribble will put her over the top and, hopefully, on a more local scale, place Gentry in contention to win the conference this year.

After finishing in second place last season behindShiloh Christian, and an opening-round exit from the state tournament, Gentry’s main goal this season is to win conference.

The Lady Pioneers are still prepping, with nonleague games, for their conference-opener against Eureka Springs on April 5, and this squad’s talent hasPalacios and her teammates feeling confident.

“Oh, I think we can do more than just win conference,” Palacios said. “As a team, we’ve all just gotten so much better. And I think if we work harder this year like we’ve been doing, and giving it all we can, I think we can do it.”

Sports, Pages 10 on 04/04/2012