Despite Playing in Pain, She Makes Gains on the Field : Soccer: Injuries don’t faze Schulman, an All-Century League defender and four-year starter at El Modena.
El Modena fullback Molly Schulman hasn’t been kind to her body lately. In the past six months she has:
--Broken her nose, when she dived head-first into the bleachers trying for a dig during a summer league volleyball game.
--Defended Canyon’s Kim Campbell, one of Orange County’s top scorers in soccer this season, playing virtually on one leg.
--Had eight needles poked into her ailing right leg by an acupuncturist.
--Stopped shaving her legs, along with her teammates, while El Modena enjoys its current 10-match unbeaten streak.
On the surface, Schulman does not appear to be the prototypical standout defender. She is only 5 feet 2, refrains from year-round club soccer play, and projects a quiet and modest demeanor that belies her fiery spirit.
Still, Schulman, a returning first-team All-Century League defender and four-year starter, has a simple reason for pushing herself to the limits of pain and performance:
“There’ll be time to rest later,” she said.
There will be time to shave later, too.
Schulman can laugh about her team’s superstition, because with her light blonde hair it’s hard to tell she hasn’t shaved her legs since winter break.
“I always wear pants though,” Schulman said. “The guys laugh and think it’s gross.
“And for some of the darker-haired girls (on the team) . . . ooohh . . . “
Schulman shuddered at the thought.
El Modena’s defense also has its opponents shaking.
Schulman, Brenda Hinrichs, Desiree Brunette and goalie Amy Moreno anchor an El Modena defense that has allowed only two goals in eight Century League games. The defense also has posted six shutouts.
Despite El Modena’s sputtering offense (25 goals in 16 matches), which Schulman leads with a team-high five goals, the Vanguards (6-5-5, 4-0-4 in league) have moved within one point of first-place Canyon, setting up Tuesday’s 3 p.m. league showdown at Canyon.
In the Jan. 21 match against Canyon (14-5-2, 6-1-1), the ninth-ranked team in Division 3-A, Schulman shadowed Campbell and held her scoreless to help preserve a 0-0 tie.
“Molly did a good job and stuck to Kim like glue,” Canyon Coach John Williams said. “In that game, we just didn’t convert on the opportunities we had.”
One of those opportunities came 2 1/2 minutes into the match when Campbell found an opening.
“Molly let Kim float loose for just a few seconds,” El Modena Coach Tino Younger said. “And all of a sudden, from 25 yards out, Kim fires a shot, a good shot . . . but luckily for us it hit the crossbar.
“I think that (shot) grabbed Molly’s attention and she just stayed tight on Kim for the rest of the game.”
A sharp pain in Schulman’s right hamstring also grabbed her attention later in the match.
“It got so bad that I could barely walk,” Schulman said. “I was crying on the sideline in the second half because it hurt so much.”
El Modena trainer Jim Bardieu checked Schulman’s leg and advised Younger to keep her out of the match.
But after consulting with Molly and her father, Bob Schulman, Bardieu taped up her leg and Younger sent her out for another half of Campbell-chasing, one-legged style.
The tie helped El Modena keep its first-ever girls’ soccer league championship within reach.
“I just want to win and it’s a natural high for me to be out (on the soccer field),” Schulman said. “I’m hyper and I push things, but it feels good just pushing it.
“And there’s time to rest later.”
Schulman rested in Dr. Christian Shimoda’s office shortly after the Canyon match. El Modena girls’ volleyball Coach Craig Terfetiller referred Schulman to Shimoda, an osteopath who practices acupuncture.
According to Schulman, the acupuncture sessions helped her sore hamstring immensely. Now Schulman has gone back to needling opponents on the soccer field near full speed.
“It’s neat to play against the best players, it’s really an honor,” she said. “I like the challenge.”
But Schulman has declined invitations to play club soccer, “where it is generally known that most of the top players and coaches come out of club,” Capistrano Valley Coach John Bolger said.
However, it doesn’t mean she can’t play at the club level.
In the Foothill tournament Dec. 27, Younger assigned Schulman to mark Capistrano Valley’s Monika Larsson, a club-circuit veteran and first-team All-South Coast League player last season.
Although the Cougars won, 2-1, Larsson, who has scored 21 goals in 20 matches, did not score against El Modena and had only two shots on goal.
“Molly was very tough and she definitely took me out of my game,” said Larsson, who will play soccer at San Diego State, St. Mary’s or Stanford next year. “She did the best job defending me that I’ve seen this year; I wouldn’t want to play her again.
“She would be a star on a club team.”
Schulman turned down offers to play club soccer because she wanted to devote time to other interests, including volleyball and dance, which she gave up only three years ago.
“I danced with Orange County Song and Dance,” Schulman said. “I did some tap, ballet jazz dancing . . . I even danced in (an exhibition at) the Olympics at Dodger Stadium in ’84.
“I think the dancing has helped my soccer. It keeps you limber and more flexible. I never got hurt until I gave up dancing right before my freshman year on the El Modena soccer team.”
While she has retired her toe wraps and finished the volleyball season with a Southern Section finalist, Schulman’s tireless work ethic carries over into academics.
She has a 3.42 grade-point average and would like to study special education, following in her parents’ footsteps. Her mother, Donna, teaches and her father is a school administrator.
“(Younger) makes sure we all keep up with our studies,” Schulman said. “He really cares and is always looking out for us.”
Younger is looking at Canyon right now, and so is Schulman. And on Tuesday, Schulman will put on her lucky headband, forget she has a tender hamstring and try to shut down Canyon’s scoring machine one more time.
Because there will be time to rest later.
