WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- Scott Shields, the women's soccer coach at Whitman
College, may not be the most talkative and outspoken person on the street.Shields does not lack words, however, when describing Molly Willis, a senior defender who recently earned all-conference honors for the third consecutive season at Whitman.
"Molly is the kind of player every coach wants to have on his or her team," Shields said. "She really deserves all the awards she has received as a player here. She is highly motivated to win, hard working, extremely coachable, and realizes personal success through the success of the team."
Shields said Willis, a 1993 graduate of Crescent Valley High School in Corvallis, Oregon, could have "easily played for a Pac-10 school. She certainly is one of the most talented players in our conference (Northwest Conference of Independent Colleges). She has great vision and the ability to see the flow of the game develop, anticipating where she, or the ball, needs to be before the play arrives."
Shields, who was honored recently as the 1996 NCIC Coach of the Year in women's soccer, took the reins of the Whitman women's program three years ago, when Willis was a sophomore.
"My first season here was a challenging one," Shields said. "Molly was used to playing forward and midfield in high school, but I needed her talent on the defense. That first season I built the team defense around her. She played sweeper so she could use her ability to read the game to stop other teams from scoring."
With recruiting going well and his team's overall talent rising, Shields was able to move Willis to the stopper position this past fall for her final season. "The change worked out very well," he said. "At stopper we were able to use her vision and scoring potential to benefit our offense as well as our defense. Molly scored four goals this season. Three were unassisted and two were game winning goals."
As a senior team captain, Willis led Whitman to its best season in seven years. Whitman place third and qualified for the conference playoffs with a 12-6-1 season record.
In a vote of team members, Willis also received this year's Team Player award, which is presented to someone who "lives and breathes soccer" during the season. It was the second time in three seasons she received the award. Last fall, she received Whitman's Defensive Player of the Year award.
"Molly is not only a great soccer player but also one of the finest individuals I know," Shields added. "Academically she is very strong, having maintained a 3.723 grade point average as a biology major. She is very involved in her social groups and has an incredibly likable personality. She has the talent to do anything she sets her mind to."
Shields doesn't relish the task of replacing Willis. "I feel very lucky to have had a player like Molly to coach," he said. "She has done so much for this team and program. Trying to replace her will be difficult. Players and people of her quality do not come around as often as you would like."
Willis, the daughter of Tim and Sandra Willis of Corvallis, is in the process of applying to various graduate schools in the fields of ecology and marine biology. Her long- range goals are to complete a doctoral degree, teach at the college level and conduct research on the side.
While her competitive soccer days are over, Willis plans to continue playing at the recreational level. "I began coaching some last summer, which was fun," she said. "I hope to continue to gain more experience and keep coaching soccer if I can find the time."
During her prep career at Crescent Valley High School, Willis played forward on her soccer team and earned all-league honors three consecutive seasons. As a senior, she led the league in scoring as a senior and earned a spot on the all-state team.
In choosing Whitman, however, academics rather than soccer was the key consideration, Willis said.
"I wanted to be able to play soccer but still have academics be my top priority," she said. "I knew that I wanted to go to a smaller school. When I looked at Whitman, soccer was an added bonus. I came here because I liked the idea of a liberal arts and sciences education. I wanted to focus on biology but still have the opportunity to take a variety of classes in other subjects."
In retrospect, Whitman was the right choice, Willis added.
"Whitman was the perfect size and provided a variety of opportunities for me to participate, including soccer. It was also in a good location in that I wanted to stay in the Northwest where I grew up."
"I am glad that I came here and was able to get playing time starting my freshman year. I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed my experience with soccer . . . my coaches, my teammates, and the general support for the school have been great. Playing soccer may not have been one of my top priorities in choosing a college, but it has been one of the best experiences I had here."
Not that juggling academics and athletics was always an easy chore, Willis said. This fall, for example, she missed the second half of a conference game because graduate school exams were being held that day. Fortunately, Whitman jumped to a 3-1 halftime lead, which made it much easier for Willis to concentrate on her exams.
Not only did Whitman win that particular soccer game, Willis did well on her exams.
"So I guess the sacrifice was worth it."