Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Leading A Double Soccer Life
KIRIK LEARNED TO ADAPT AND FREELANCE
PRAIRIE GROVE — Shifting back and forth between her club soccer team, Bentonville Prodigy FC, and her high school team, Prairie Grove 2022 graduate Alaina Kirik found herself leading a double life.
Kirik has played club soccer eight months of the year from June through January, and switched to high school soccer February through May. Kirik accumulated way more experience competing in the club soccer environment than playing high school soccer. Not only was she asked to play different positions, there’s a major difference in personnel.
Personnel Differences
“The team dynamics kind of shift and it’s hard [a challenge to adapt] because in club we play a whole different style and the girls are different,” Kirik said.
At the club level everything operates from an in-depth focus on soccer with more elite players and athletes who have grown up in the sport. Doug Estrada coaches the Bentonville Prodigy based out of Bentonville/Rogers area. Kirik’s played two seasons for Estrada.
Kirik’s used to playing defense in club soccer but, because of different personnel on her high school team in contrast to her club team, the needs vary as do the roles coaches ask her to play. She played an offensive position for Prairie Grove.
Those physical and mental contrasts required a major adjustment.
“I play left outside back [in club soccer], which is not a position that we categorize here at Prairie Grove. It’s basically like our left midfielder. I would say it’s pretty hard to switch on and off, but since we do and I play [soccer] year-round I’ve gone back to it,” Kirik said. “It is hard to switch because left outside back [in club soccer] is more of a sideline kind of a thing. I mean you can cut in, but that’s the formation.”
It’s a whole different mindset to function from, yet Kirik succeeded. During her sophomore season, she put the Lady Tigers into the 2021 Class 4A State girl soccer tournament by scoring the winning goal in a second sudden death overtime.
Freelancing Lady Tiger
According to its website, Prodigy competitive teams are open to dedicated and committed girls and boys from ages 11 and under to 19 and under forming multiple teams in each age group with multiple league levels of play for players of all abilities. Players are placed on teams by ability and commitment with team training 2-to-3 times per week. All teams are coached by professionally licensed coaches, not volunteers such as trainers or parents.
In contrast Kirik was able to freelance more often playing for the Lady Tigers. Kirik converted after Prairie Grove got a steal off pressure and scored on an open net in the first half of a 2-1 girls soccer victory over Berryville on Tuesday, April 5, 2022.
“Basically somebody shot it in and it deflected off so then I followed it up with a shot on the
ground and it went into the back left corner with my right foot,” Kirik said, admitting she found herself in the right place at the right time.
It was a play that wouldn’t have transpired within the structured club soccer offense.
Light-Hearted Atmosphere
Kirik tapped into both the coaching of savvy Prairie Grove 2022 soccer coaches, Mat Stewart and Tommy Roy, as well as her instinct.
Her goal resulted from a combination of both.
“I would say it’s probably from years of playing but also from [coaching]. Since I play defense with my club team, Coach Stewart and Coach Roy helped me to be more offensive than defensive. It’s hard to switch back and forth when you’re around a club team playing defense to offense, but midfielder is kind of like an offense/defensive thing [position] so it’s kind of the same but different at the same time,” Kirik said.
Stewart and Roy, these two guys know soccer. Stewart resigned after the season as he relocated to South Carolina. Roy steps up to the head coaching position and Kristen Walker, the mother of Prairie Grove soccer who’s been boys head coach the past two seasons, shifts to assistant coach for the girls.
Kirik describes her relationship with Stewart and Roy as loose and lighthearted, and appreciates insights they conveyed in asking her to play a different position than she was used to in club soccer.
“We’re pretty close because it’s kind of like a fun relationship. We mess around with each other, joke around and call each other funny names or something,” Kirik said. “Coach Stewart always has something funny to say. I would say they definitely helped me switch my mindset and tell me when to just take it when I’m used to just passing it because in club it’s one-two make a pass where in high school it’s not necessarily that and so they helped me a lot with that shift in dynamics and stuff.”
Flexibility And Leadership
Kirik’s teammates in high school looked to her for leadership on the field because of her experience.
“The way that I act in high school is the way that all of us act in club. It’s just kind of like the norm and what Coach Estrada enables us to do is he says he’s going to be harder on us in club so that when we get to the real world it’ll be easier. He teaches us patience, leadership and grit,” Kirik said.
Regardless of what uniform she’s wearing or the position she lines up in, Kirik draws a sense of enjoyment from playing soccer. She gets a thrill out of almost everything soccer entails, even when she gets tired.
“I love the sport and for me it’s one of the most physically demanding sports,” Kirik said.
She’s not saying that other sports are stupid or not physically demanding, rather she emphasizes that participating in club soccer has been a way for her to play against other people who live in other states such as Alabama, Florida, Illinois and Tennessee.
“When you’re with another soccer person it’s just kind of like you relate to them a lot more and when you’re under so much pressure [to perform on the field] you get really close to them,” Kirik said.