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Tais Mota. Photo by Vaso Brodeur
When Putnam Science Academy girls’ soccer coach Jen Bennett met her team for the first time, she needed someone she could talk to. Well, someone she could talk to who could then talk to the rest of the team.
Enter Tais Mota.
The 15-year-old from Fortaleza in northeastern Brazil, spoke Spanish well enough to serve as the team’s unofficial translator, bridging the gap between coach and players, as well as between players. Taking on that important role so early wasn’t something Mota was seeking, but she certainly felt at ease in a leadership-type position. She was, after all, a captain on her city’s Under-20 team at age 14.
Bennett continues to lean on the junior, but now for so much more than just translating.
“Tais is a special player,” Bennett said. “You can’t teach people to be tough. They either have it in them or they don’t, and she has it. She is just a vital part of the team.”
Mota is the center-midfielder, the area of the field from which Bennett demands so much. She wants them winning every 50/50 ball, making every tackle. She doesn’t want her players to win in the midfield, she wants them to dominate in the midfield. Bennett knows it’s a lot to shoulder.
“Tais can handle it,” Bennett said, “mentally and physically.”
Mota acknowledges the American game is much more physical in the midfield than it is in Brazil. But she likes it because it is more aligned with the professional level of play, something to which she aspires. And she benefitted from city not having a lot of teams to play on.
“They didn’t have Under-14 or Under-16 teams for me to play on,” Mota said. “So I used to play with older girls and adults and on the U-20 teams. When I was 13, I was playing with adults. I wasn’t a starter, but I played in every game. And then when I was 14, I was a starter and a captain on the U-20 team. So being physical, it was kind of how I played and how I learned to play.
“Sometimes I get physical and called for some fouls but it’s not like I’m trying to stop the game or hurt someone. It’s just my way to play.”
Bennett loves how she plays, and how that style never takes a break.
“She is a hard-nosed player,” Bennett said. “She elevates over other players to win balls in the air with her head. She literally throws her body in the air to volley a ball into the goal. This is all the time…practice, game, doesn’t matter.”
Said Mota: “If it’s practice or a game or if it would be the final of the World Cup, I always try to do my best. You should always do your best. It doesn’t matter if it’s practice or a game. Practice is what you’re going to do in the game. You can’t do it right in the game if you’re not practicing it the right way. You have to do it all the time.”
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy