Tessa Binkley may describe herself as shy, but when it comes to soccer she has no reservations.
“[Last year] there were a few games where someone needed to stand up and take a shot,” said women’s head coach Brent Gonsalves, “and she would be the one would put in the winning goal or score the first goal to break a team down.”
Part of Binkley’s skill comes from experience. She’s been playing soccer since she was five.
“I had an older brother so whatever he did I pretty much did,” said the full-time City College student.
Binkley, a second-year Vaquero player, has managed to carve out a niche for herself in the local soccer world. Last year Coach Gonsalves voted her MVP and just last month she was the runner-up for Santa Barbara News-Press’ Athlete of the Week honor.
“On the soccer field she’s just one of those players where if you give her the ball you know she’ll do something with it,” said fellow teammate Kira Watkins.
Being in control of the ball is something Binkley has worked hard at.
“She’s our top scorer on the team right now,” Gonsalvez said, adding that she’s scored nine goals this season-which started in August and goes until November.
Binkley says it helps her stay focused if she sets objectives.
“This year one of my main goals was to score a goal every game,” she said, referring to the two games the Vaqueros plays each week.
Watkins says that just watching Binkley on the field is inspiring. “She’s one of those leaders who doesn’t use a lot of words but her presence-being fired up-gets the rest of us fired up.”
The 19-year-old midfielder says her favorite play is heading balls off of corner kicks.
“I like using different parts of the body, not just the feet,” Binkley said.
Despite her competitive bent, Binkley says she tries not to take the game too seriously.
“The main thing I go out there to do is have fun, because that’s what it’s about,” she said.
Gonsalves agrees.
“There’s definitely a spontaneous glow about her when she’s playing,” he said.
He says his objective for her now is to “find an institution that she’ll be able to play at and hopefully get a scholarship doing it.”
Binkley says she is toying with the idea of attending either UCSB or UC San Diego, and possibly taking a semester off before transferring.
As for what she plans to study, Binkley is undecided.
“That’s the thing about me,” she said. “I have absolutely no idea.”
In spite of Binkley’s track record on the field (Gonsalves calls her “a scoring threat”) she admits that things don’t always work out the way she wants. Binkley remembers a game she played last year against L.A. Pierce College in the quarterfinals.
“We tied the game 1-1 and had to go into a shoot-out,” she recalls. “In practice I usually make all my penalty shots but in this game I took the first kick in a shoot-out and missed,” she said.
“I kicked it over the goal. I’m the only one who missed out of both teams.”
Binkley said she cried a lot that day. But coach Gonsalves wasn’t worried then, and he isn’t worried now.
“She was instrumental in our victories last year,” he said, adding that this year she is even better. “I think this is another example of a great local kid coming through our system.”