When several Livonia Churchill women's soccer players approached Averi Collins about joining the team earlier this year, the recent transfer's reaction was simple.
“Why don't we play again?'' said Collins, who scored the game-tying goal with 16 minutes remaining in Tuesday's season opener, a 2-2 tie with rival Livonia Franklin.
This is quite a junior year for Collins, who transferred from nearby Plymouth and was a two-year contributor on the varsity basketball team.
Moving around town and hitting the reset button on high schools will slow down most kids.
Not Collins.
She walked into Churchill, quickly made new friends and quickly found success as a leader and point guard for the Chargers. She's so good, in fact, she was one of 15 players named to Hometown Life's All-Area First Team last week.
Now she's giving soccer another chance.
She started playing on the pitch when she was five years old. She has played in reaction leagues. She has played on the travel circuit for Plymouth Lane Soccer Club and the Michigan Hawks. And she competed in the Plymouth joint venture.
Once she arrived at Churchill, no one would have blamed her for focusing on basketball. But there she played in the opening game, running down the field with sprinter-like speed and creating scoring chances as a striker.
“We had heard about her,” seventh-year coach Chris Barnett said. “They (current players) all knew her and tried to convince her to come and play in the winter season. “It was,” he said. “So she was excited about that. She's a real soccer player, a real athlete. She has a nose for scoring goals and she likes what she's seen from her so far. There it is.”
Churchill and Plymouth Canton Education Park soccer are very different.
All three schools – Canton, Plymouth and Salem – have a strong soccer culture. It is no exaggeration to say that this is a major sport that the three schools are focusing on.
Both schools should have no problem fielding full rosters at the freshman, JV, and varsity levels. And it wouldn't be a surprise if one of their teams made it to the top of the playoffs and earned a spot in the state championship. For example, the Canton girls team has appeared in seven state finals and won twice.
Churchill, the smallest school in the Kensington Lakes Activities Association, hasn't reached the state finals since 1990 for the boys and 1988 for the girls. And these days, you're lucky if you have enough players to form a JV team (though they came close this spring with 26 girls on varsity).
It's a different animal for the Chargers. The Chargers continue to build on their bid to become one of the top teams in the KLAA East, chasing rivals Livonia Stevenson and Belleville. And it's especially different considering Collins is one of the best basketball players west of metro Detroit.
“It’s different, especially going from the court to the field,” the junior admitted. “That's a big difference and I'm just getting the hang of it now. I'm just starting to get to know my new teammates and I'm learning.”
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Good news? Collins once played travel soccer with Chargers goaltender Bridget Chick, and Julia Griess was Collins' teammate on the basketball team.
So there's a sense of familiarity there.
Speaking of point guards, Franklin's starting point guard, sophomore Bre Campbell, broke through Churchill's last line 17 minutes before halftime and drilled the game's first goal into the left post.
That lead didn't last long, however, as Gianna Whitney deftly evaded a Patriot player's tackle to begin a comeback, and the senior midfielder scored the tying goal, leaving the score 1-1 at halftime. Ta.
Franklin's Emma Nichols eluded Churchill's defense and scored the winning goal from about 15 yards out eight minutes into the second half.
But, of course, Collins was there to force in the tying goal in a moment of inferiority.
Brandon Folsom covers high school sports in metropolitan Detroit for Hometown Life. Follow him on Twitter @folsombrandonj.
