By Cooper Chadwick
Prepared to lead her team back to state, senior Jadyn Perales is a powerful and an integral part of the Maize Eagles midfield.
“She is a strong physical presence in the MF and always seemed to make the right decision on the ball. Was involved in a number of crunching tackles that motivated our team at critical times last season. Jadyn is an incredibly technical and versatile player,” head coach Jay Holmes said.
Last season Maize made a deep run into the playoffs and finished fourth in 6A, even with the impressiveness of that finish, Perales isn’t satisfied.
“I believe that we can do even better this season,” Perales said. “As a team we need to score more goals than last year, we won a lot of games by one goal. We didn’t take many risks.”
Perales knows the importance of her role on this team, that is why she put her head down and worked this offseason.
“I work on the basics. Including first touch, checking my shoulder and playing balls into the air. I believe that having very good fundamentals is the key to being a solid player, especially in the midfield,” Perales said.
Last year Perales finished the season with 12 goals and seven assists and earned first team all-league and was also named on the all-state team. Despite her accomplishments Perales still has things she thinks she can improve on.
“A big thing that I want to improve on is being more attacking minded. When I win a ball in the midfield I usually aim to play it safe and keep the ball, passing it off to a teammate. I want to be more confident on the ball to where I can be more patient and keep it until a better option rises to move up the field.”
