By ROY HESS | The Brownsville Herald
Just give Samantha Bodden a soccer ball, turn her loose on the field and see what happens.
No doubt, she’ll soon be scoring a goal.
That’s pretty much how things went during the soccer season just completed as the standout senior scorer for Brownsville Veterans Memorial recorded 50 goals and helped lead her team to the Class 5A playoffs from District 32-5A.
Bodden is The Brownsville Herald’s Girls Soccer All-Metro Offensive Player of the Year.
“ It’s kind of crazy because I did not expect to get the All-Metro award for offensive player. I just didn’t see that coming,” said Bodden, who earlier this month signed to play soccer next school year at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, an NAIA school, and recently was voted first-team all-district at forward in 32-5A. “To know that my hard work all season has paid off is tremendous and it feels amazing.
“ These four years (at Brownsville Veterans) have all come down to the end (of my high school career) and receiving offensive player of the year is a great way to finish up,” added Bodden, who plays for the Dynamo Academy club team out of McAllen. “Now I’m training for college and I’ll report up there the first week of August. It’s been a long four years, but it’s been an amazing four years, and I can’t thank my coaches and my parents (William and Janie Bodden) enough.”
Lady Chargers coach Luis Troncoso said it’s been a pleasure to have the standout scorer on his team along with older sister Kathryn “Kat” Bodden, a 2017 Brownsville Veterans graduate who is already a member of the Huston-Tillotson women’s soccer team.
“ Aside from Sam’s talent (to score) that gave our team an opportunity to be successful, she is a person who led the girls and kept them together,” Troncoso said. “It’s always a challenge to be a leader because it’s not easy to do, but she was out there doing it in different ways.
“ Sam is someone who goes out and performs,” Troncoso added. “She led by example. She was a difference-maker for us.”
Bodden finished her four-year high school career with 94 goals.
“ I’m very excited because now I’m going to play collegiately,” she said. “My sister and I have been playing together since we were like 6 and 7, so it’s crazy to know we’ll be playing together again.
“ It means the world to me to have gotten this opportunity to play my high school soccer here (at Brownsville Veterans),” she added. “I’ve had amazing coaches all my life. It’s been a great four years and now I’m really looking forward to playing in college.”
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess