No longer just a nominee for Minnesota’s top award in the high-school soccer community, senior soccer captain Aleksa Tataryn recently won the title of Minnesota’s Ms. Soccer 2015 in the single-A division.

“This year I think my main goal was to be nominated for Ms. Soccer, and also to win State as a team; but for a personal goal was to be awarded Ms. Soccer, being nominated was just another step towards the goal. It was a great feeling,” Tataryn said.

This year the team was undefeated in their conference and had a 14-1-1 record for the regular season. They are slated for a State A Semifinal appearance in the State A Tournament on Wednesday, November 4, after beating Sartell-St. Stephen 4-0 in their Thursday, October 29, quarterfinal game.

It turns out that Tataryn has played on a team with one of the other Ms. Soccer nominees.  “One of them was Carly Goehring, she goes to Orono and is on my club team, so I’m good friends with her. I was hoping if I wasn’t me, she’d get it [Ms. Soccer],” Tataryn said.

Tataryn has been playing soccer for almost ten years now, having been introduced to it by her older brother.  “My brother is two years older [than me], and he started playing when he was like four or five, so I would kind of just go along with him, so starting around the age of three, I was on a team with him and my dad coached. It’s kind of been in the family,” Tataryn said.

We’ve seen the BSM girls’ soccer team win a lot of games, but more goes into winning those games than one might think.  “We have a lot of team superstitions, everything has to be the same. [For example] on home games we always dugout an hour before [the game],” Tataryn said.

The team even has a pre-set warmup routine that if changed, could result in a catastrophe. “Our whole warmup is a superstition, when we are doing our dynamic warmup, everyone has to be in sync, and when we go into our stretching circle you have to sit in the same spot every time and the same person has to start.  When we have away games, on the bus we have to sit in the same spot by the same person every time,” Tataryn said.

Tataryn has her post-high school plans already set, having already committed to the University of Loyola in Chicago for NCAA Division I soccer in September.  “I have a friend, she’s a year older and she plays soccer there, and she told me she really liked it and when I looked at the school, I fell in love with it, and I really like Chicago,” Tataryn said.  “I’m really excited about that because I’ve wanted to go there for a while.”

Tataryn’s time on the soccer field doesn’t stop after BSM games, as she also plays for a club team. “I play for MTA, which is Minnesota Thunder Academy.  I play with [seniors] Sophie [Roux] and Taylor [Gelling],” she said.

BSM’s team might seem like a walk in the park when compared to the year-round MTA team Tataryn plays for.  “It’s a lot more competitive for sure, [with] all the teams we play: there are no easy games.  It’s definitely a step up with fitness and aggressiveness, like with fouls.  We also travel a lot.  Last year we went to Florida, St. Louis, San Diego, and Seattle, for national events, and for [normal] games we went to Milwaukee, and areas closer [to home],” Tataryn said.

Along with the team’s practice and pre-game superstitions, Tataryn has a few of her own too.  “I guess I have a ritual on how I put on my gear, I always have to start on my right side, I start with my shin guards, socks then my cleats.  I don’t know why, I think it’s because I’m right footed,” Tataryn said.

Almost everyone has at least one person they can consider their ‘partner in crime’ and for Tataryn, that is senior Sophie Roux. “Sophie and I tend to work really well together and one time she passed me the ball and I scored, our coach doesn’t really like us celebrating [after we score], but she pretended to shoot an arrow at me and I fell down, it was pretty funny,” Tataryn said.

As hard as it may be to admit, all good things must come to an end. “This has probably been the most fun year; we are all bonded well and there’s not much drama, which is really nice.  I love ‘em, it’s gonna be sad when we’re done,” Tataryn said.