The Word Is Out

Nicole Bucciarelli, who has been in perpetual motion her entire life, was talking in spurts. She was not about to slow down, not even when Marine Cano, her UC Irvine soccer coach, was within earshot.

“When we choose up teams, you’re the last one picked, huh?” Bucciarelli yelled down the hallway in the Irvine athletic department building.

Cano, a former professional goalie, had reached his office but paused to fire back: “I never play goalie against my team. If I did, they would lose all confidence. I’m the eraser.”

Bucciarelli had an answer.

“When he’s our goalie we all go, ‘Nooooooo!’ ”

Cano, who for once didn’t get the last word, has no one to blame but himself. In many ways, this is his own creation.

Bucciarelli, a senior, was a bundle of raw energy when she arrived at UCI three years ago. Nurtured and pushed, she long ago obliterated every Anteater scoring record with a style that has often left opponents bewildered and gassed.

She points to Cano as the reason.

It has been a long haul from Van Nuys Grant High School, where Bucciarelli scored 48 goals as a senior and was ignored by almost every college recruiter. She has 42 goals in three seasons at Irvine, setting single-season and career school scoring records.

Some have noticed; Bucciarelli was invited to play for the California team in the Olympic Development Program this summer. Some haven’t; she was not selected to the coaches’ All-West region team last season, despite 13 goals and seven assists that led Irvine to the Big West Conference tournament championship.

“It’s despicable,” Cano said of her snub. “I find it very hard to find a coach who shouldn’t have put her name on it. All you have to do is look at the stats and you know. But everyone has their own agenda.

“Any opponent on our schedule will have her name on their chalkboard, guaranteed. Everyone knows her number and everyone knows her name.

“She should have been All-American last year. If she is not All-American this year, I might start thinking I’m in the wrong business.”

While Cano froths about career change, Bucciarelli talks postseason. This is the first year the Big West Conference will receive an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. The Anteaters open their season tonight against Toledo.

“We have to win our first game. We’re going to be the Big West champions again and get an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament,” Bucciarelli said.

“It’s been three years and we’ve been so close. This year, we have a lot of older players and we have some younger players that are going to help us. We’re going to do it this year. . . . No more waiting.”

The voice is Bucciarelli’s. But you have to check to see if Cano is lurking nearby holding up cue cards. Then again, he has trained Bucciarelli well.

Certainly, she had success prior to Cano. Her pinball-style of play created scoring opportunities galore at Grant. College coaches didn’t seem to care. At 5 feet 3, she was deemed too small.

Many of those same coaches, who might not think about Bucciarelli when they hand out postseason honors, have her on their minds come game time.

In a game last season, USC had three players shadowing Bucciarelli at times. She has endured plenty of pushing, shoving and grabbing, and usually gives as good as she gets.

“My older brother made me tough,” Bucciarelli said. “At least that’s what my mom and dad tell me. We were typical brother and sister. I tagged along after him and we fought a lot.”

Said her mother, Penny Bucciarelli: “Oh yeah, she would be dressed up to go somewhere and he would go throw her in the pool. She had to learn to hold her own.”

Of course, it was also Randy Bucciarelli, her brother, who built a soccer goal in the backyard for her birthday. They played against each other--using the hallway at home as a goal--and he now follows her career as an avid fan. Her parents come to nearly every game, including trips to Oregon.

It underscores that much of her training came from her family, including her father Sam, who coached her until she joined a club in the seventh grade. She had three soccer coaches at Grant.

Then came Cano.

“He takes a lot of credit and I give him a lot of credit,” Bucciarelli said. “He demands a lot. He makes good players by putting a lot of pressure on them. If you don’t get pressure, you don’t have any reason to improve.”

It’s Bucciarelli who applies pressure now . . . on opponents.

“She never stops,” Cano said. “She’ll be in the defensive box and you will look away for a second. When you look back, she’s on the other end of the field.

“There was one game her first year where Tracie Manz was waiting on a pass and let it go through her legs. Bucciarelli was on the spot and pounded it home. We looked at the tape later and realized that she ran past three defenders. We ran it over and over again trying to figure out how she did that.”

Such one-woman goals are impressive, but Cano boasts about Bucciarelli’s all-around game, pointing out that she played midfield, not forward, for the Olympic development team.

“That’s a playmaking position,” Cano said. “She had to learn to be a better passer. We restricted her touches in practice. She was not allowed to take on nine players anymore. You can beat one, maybe two, at this level, but you have to be a good passer.”

Bucciarelli had seven assists last year. In the conference tournament semifinals against Pacific, she dragged two defenders with her, then fed Stephanie Rigamat for the go-ahead goal in a 2-1 victory.

“I think I’ve changed a lot since I’ve been here,” Bucciarelli said. “Just playing Cano’s system makes me read the game better. He is really strong on skills and fitness too. That all plays a role.”

More compliments. But, then, Cano wasn’t within earshot.

“She always has the answer to my questions,” Cano said. “Before I get the question out, she always has an answer. It might not always be right, but she always has an answer.”