Clavadetscher Drops Ball, Kicks It

No longer torn between two sports, Kerrie Clavadetscher hopes to become more effective in one.

If her performance Saturday in the L.A. Watts Summer Games is any indication, the Chaminade High senior-to-be is well on her way.

Clavadetscher figured in every goal in two soccer matches and the Eagles beat North Torrance, 3-0, in the first round and Peninsula’s B team, 1-0, in the quarterfinals and advanced to today’s 8 a.m. semifinal match against Ayala, a 1-0 winner over the Peninsula A team.

Clavadetscher scored one goal and assisted on the other two against North Torrance, which tied the Eagles, 1-1, last season in the Foothill Excalibur tournament. She followed that by scoring the only goal against Peninsula B after a direct free kick by Mindy Wyatt.

The offensive show was not exactly a surprise for Clavadetscher--she led the Eagles in scoring each of the past two years--but it is just the kind of thing she had in mind when she gave up basketball to focus on soccer and confirmed what for her was a difficult decision.

“This was a good start,” Clavadetscher said. “Now we’ve just got to keep going from here.”

Clavadetscher herself was always on the go during the past two seasons.

She played only basketball as a Chaminade freshman. She played basketball and soccer--both of which take place during the winter season--during her sophomore year, and kept up the frenetic pace until midway through her junior year, when the time demands and physical toll finally became too much.

The 5-foot-7 Clavadetscher, a forward in soccer and a guard in basketball, dropped the latter sport--and her athletic double life--in midseason and will play only soccer as a senior.

“It’ll be totally all soccer now,” she said. “For me it’s a kind of a relief, and it should be easier for me and easier for my family, too, because I was always stressed out.

“I had to make a decision. It was hard, because I love basketball and I like the girls on the team, and the coach (Diane Garza) and I were close. But it was hard. I had two practices a day and sometimes two games the same day, and my body was getting run down.

“I need to focus on one thing if I want to better myself. It just takes a lot of training. And even though I put my all into both the sports, if there were ever games where the times conflicted, I always went to soccer. I wanted to better myself as a player, and to do that, I needed to play more.”

Clavadetscher had 17 goals as a sophomore and 19 as a junior. She also had eight assists last year, when the Eagles were Mission League co-champions with Harvard-Westlake and won the Southern Section Division III title with a 2-1 victory over El Modena.

Both she and her team will be looking for more this year.

“She’s got a good 25, 30 goals in her,” Chaminade Coach Mike Evans said. “She has speed and she’s creative, very aware of what’s happening on the field, and those are two things that you can’t teach. And as far as physically, she’ll be a lot better off now.”

So will the team, Clavadetscher hopes.

“We want to win the league and repeat as CIF champs,” she said. “I’d like to help the team as much as I can, and there’s a big difference when you know you’re really playing well.”

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* DOUBLE TAKE

Birmingham’s boys’ and girls’ teams win titles in track and field competition. C15

* UPS AND DOWNS

Highland splits two matches while Birmingham and Hoover are shut out in girls’ soccer play. C15