Parker’s Game Is Hardball

Coach Brian Wiesner hit the recruiting trail last winter looking to add a little grit to his Cal State Northridge women’s soccer team.

With Joanna Parker, he landed the equivalent of a 50-pound bag of sand.

Tired of watching his players being beaten to loose balls and playing uninspired defense in 1997, Wiesner’s recruiting wish list didn’t so much include offensive talent as defensive ruffians. He found Parker, overlooked on a winless Glendora High team.

“The game I watched, her team lost, 5-0,” Wiesner said. “But Joanna was going after people and making some very hard tackles even when the game was way out of hand. She didn’t belly up and quit, and the rest of her team had.”

As Northridge prepares to host UC Santa Barbara on Tuesday in its opener, the starting lineup is unsettled.

Parker, however, will be part of it, whether at sweeper, fullback or defensive midfielder.

“She’s too tough not to have on the field,” said Wiesner, whose team won two games last season. “Her skills are good; she can shoot and she has speed.”

Parker, the youngest of Carolyn Parker’s four children, was trying to dribble a soccer ball shortly after she learned to walk at nine months. She attended the countless soccer games and practices of her older siblings and grew into a high school student who earned a 3.2 grade-point average.

She played four years of volleyball, soccer and softball.

“I’m amazed when I watch her,” Carolyn Parker said. “She’s just been very determined from day one.”

Joanna was recruited by UC Irvine Coach Marine Cano, whose love of intense, physical players is well-known. But when Wiesner arranged to pay Parker’s full tuition, she signed with the Matadors, following in the footsteps of her sister Jennifer, a former Northridge softball player.

Joanna and Jennifer Parker will share an apartment when Jennifer returns from playing professional softball in Florida. Jennifer, 1997 Big West Conference player of the year, was recently hired as softball coach at Valley College.

Jennifer is well-acquainted with her red-haired, younger sister’s competitiveness.

“Joanna wears her heart on her sleeve; she’s just a little fireball,” Jennifer said. “I can remember her getting so mad that you could almost see fumes coming out of her hair.”

Parker’s inner fires occasionally slow her down.

Wiesner is working to curb her tendency to get down on herself for mistakes.

“When she makes a mistake, she doesn’t recover right away,” he said. “She’s very hard on herself and spends one or two seconds mumbling about it. But at the Division I level, one or two seconds costs you three steps.”

But that is Wiesner’s only complaint about Parker, who has energized preseason practices with a hard-charging approach that resulted in her chipping two teeth in a recent drill.

“If there is an emotional leader among the freshmen, she’s it,” Wiesner said. “It’s not by design, but the rest of them look at her and realize that’s how tough you need to be, that’s how hard you need to work.”

Matador notes

Northridge, which lost players to injury for a combined 57 games last season, suffered its first loss of the season this week when freshman forward Michelle French, who played on two Southern Section championship teams at Chaminade High, underwent knee surgery.

Wiesner said French, Chaminade’s all-time leader in assists, underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair torn cartilage and is expected to resume practicing in three weeks. Wiesner said he hopes French will be ready to play when the Matadors open Big Sky Conference play in early October. . . .

The eligibility of forward Marrica Pichaikul and defender Jessica Crespo, both juniors, is in question. Wiesner said he expects Crespo’s junior college transcript to soon be processed by the NCAA eligibility clearinghouse. He is not as optimistic that Pichaikul’s summer school grades will allow her to play this season.

Pichaikul was a Northridge starter in 1995 and 1996 before missing last season because of academic ineligibility. She was declared ineligible for the Matadors’ 1996 opener before being reinstated when the athletic department restructured its eligibility requirements. . . .

Freshman Jenny Willemse, who helped Los Alamitos High win two consecutive Southern Section titles, is the early leader in a battle to start at goalkeeper, Wiesner said. Wiesner recruited touted goalkeepers in each of the two previous seasons, only to have them back out of their letters of intent. Tawni Takagi, a junior from Chatsworth High, has been Northridge’s starting goalkeeper the last two seasons.

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WOMEN’S ROSTER

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Player Pos. Yr. Hometown Carrie Anderson MF Fr. Alta Loma Claudia Alvarez MF Jr. Glendale Kari Attebery D Sr. Ventura Erin Broadwell F Fr. Pasadena Kerrie Clavadetscher F Fr. Northridge Jessica Crespo D Jr. Simi Valley Michelle French F Fr. West Hills Riya Gough MF So. San Diego Beth Hoiby D So. Everett, Wash. Karla Jara MF So. Sacramento Deedee Jimison D So. Palo Alto Pam Karbowski D Sr. Santa Rosa Rebecca Kiesz MF Jr. Santee Kelly MacGaunn GK So. Hermosa Beach Joanna Parker D Fr. Glendora Marrica Pichaikul F Jr. Van Nuys Abbey Smith D So. Bonita Debbie Smith MF Jr. Northridge Tawni Takagi GK Jr. Chatsworth Jenny Wanner MF Sr. San Diego Jenny Willemse GK Fr. Cypress

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Head Coach: Brian Wiesner

Assistants: Allison Lee, Tuck Engelmann