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caption, page 6:
Ana Aldaz, far left, celebrating with teammates. PSA photo.
They call her “Tink,” which is short for Tinkerbell.
“But she’s a bad-A kind of Tinkerbell,” Putnam Science Academy coach Jen Bennet said of Ana Aldaz, one of the talented midfielders on the Mustangs’ girls’ soccer team. “That was my first impression of her.”
As the season has gone on, Bennett’s opinion hasn’t changed, and at the same time, Aldaz is making a number of other impressions as well.
“For me, assists are more important than goals,” Bennett said. “If we aren’t making the pass and playing as a team, we won’t be successful and won’t win the big games. Being unselfish and finding the open player is what wins games and that is what Tink has been doing all year.”
Aldaz leads the 7-0 Mustangs, who have scored 66 goals, with nine assists. She has had three games with multiples assists, including two in which she’s had three. But not only she can help teammates find the back of the net, but she can do it herself, too. She is second on the team with 12 goals, and has scored at least two in four games. But if it’s all the same, Aldaz would be just fine if those were someone else’s goals. Just as long as she got the assist.
“Both are important but I’d rather have an assist than score one myself,” said Aldaz, a 15-year-old from Spain. “That’s just the way I like to play soccer. I know how to play as a team. It’s important to pass the ball to other people because that’s the way to score. I think that I’ve always played that way.”
One of the things she does so well is chase down balls that look like they have too much pace on them, something that would cause many other players to simply give up on the play.
But not Tink.
“She’s a hustler,” Bennett said. “And then she converts those into opportunities for her teammates. She’s a team player and it shows. She’s very unselfish.”
Aldaz has a simple explanation for why she keeps getting after those balls.
“I think I’m fast and I have to use my speed,” she said. “If I see that I can get to that ball, I go.”
One of her teammates who benefits from that hustle is leading scorer Karol Souza.
“She plays hard,” Souza said. “And she’s a good passer. She puts the ball in the right spot all the time.”
Bennett said Aldaz is particularly adept at sending beautiful balls from the right side into the 18, whether it’s threading a needle or getting it into some space.
“We have been very successful with her doing that.”
The Mustangs, in their first year as a program, have battled depth issues all season, as they only have one reserve; at times during the season, Bennett had to play with nine or 10 on the field when injuries struck. But Aldaz doesn’t miss a game. And she doesn’t miss a minute, either.
“She’s one of the most in-shape players on our team,” Bennett said, “so getting 80 minutes out of her is never an issue. She’s just one of those players I can depend on to do it all for me.”
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
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