by shawn miller
sports editor
Jessie Chatfield hated the idea of being a
goalkeeper.
In fact, she almost spent her time in the goal box creating dandelion necklaces with a friend who also didn’t want to be back there, but the thought of a soccer ball tattooed across her face always made Chatfield stand up when the
offense approached.
“I think (my coach) maybe saw the potential that that could be a good position for me to succeed in and I hated it,” said Chatfield, whose club coach sent her to the goalie box for the first time the summer before eighth grade. “I would want to sit down on the field, but I couldn’t allow myself to let them score or to not try my best because I always want to do my best wherever I am put and since I was put there, I forced myself to work hard, even if I didn’t enjoy it at
the time.”
Less than six years later Chatfield, a sophomore on the Oregon soccer team, is regarded as the Pacific-10 Conference’s best goalkeeper, at least by coach Tara Erickson.
“That’s an amazing privilege that your coach would say something about a player, so I feel really honored that she would think that about me,” Chatfield said. “She’s probably also a little biased being my coach.”
Erickson said she hopes that her goalkeeper won’t have to make as many saves as last year, but the coach knows Chatfield will need to come up with clutch, game-winning saves.
“I think Jessie’s the best goalkeeper in the Pac-10, even though she’s only a sophomore,” Erickson said. “She’s an unbelievable goalkeeper, just in terms of her play within the goal but also the leadership she brings to the team and her understanding of the game.”
Erickson also highlighted Chatfield’s physique and athleticism as factors that will allow her to grow as an
elite player.
Chatfield fell in love with her position once she received knowledge about how to play the position.
“Once I really started being trained as a goalkeeper, it makes it a lot different because when you know what you are doing and when you can excel at that position it makes it a lot more fun to play,” she said.
Along with senior Nicole Garbin, Chatfield was named a team captain this season, an honor she didn’t expect prior to the announcement.
“I didn’t think about it, especially being a sophomore,” she said. “It is a huge privilege and honor and I was pleasantly surprised by it. I think Tara just really took a leap of faith to put me
as captain.”
Sophomore defender Allison Newton, who has played with Chatfield since elementary school, said that Chatfield’s communication will be important to the
team’s success.
“She has a loud voice, but sometimes I think it’s hard for her to get mad or get on people,” said Newton, who played with Chatfield at Churchill High School. “She is very constructive with her criticism in the back and I think she does a good job of having some sort of direction with what she’s saying when she does say something to us. That’s why she’s our captain too. She’s a good leader and she’s able to organize and be a leader in
the back.”
Last season, Chatfield earned Pac-10 all-freshman and all-Pac-10 honorable mention honors after she set a school record with
seven shutouts.
“I actually had lower expectations of the season last year,” Chatfield said. “I didn’t want to set my goals too high and be disappointed to ruin my first year and be let down by the experience of it. I was just hoping to make the traveling team or be the runner-up position, so to have the season that I ended up having last year was amazing and definitely went above and
beyond my expectations.”
She finished the season second in the conference in saves per game (5.05) and set school records by recording three consecutive shut outs and holding opponents scoreless for 355 minutes, 47 seconds over the course of five consecutive games.
“I think we have a much more difficult preseason and Pac-10 this year, but I also think we’re a much better team this year,” Chatfield said. “I guess it’s always good to try to go above and beyond your previous records and standards so if I can have more than that than I would hope to
do so.”
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