Damaja Jones conducts offseason exercises for the Helix Prime soccer staff at 6:30 a.m., forming in January.
“It’s open to the whole school,” mentioned Jones, who has been the top schoolteacher on the San Diego segment college since 2022.
Many scholars specific hobby. Only a few in reality display up.
Aubrey Laue did, forming in January 2023, desperate to put together the college roster upcoming taking part in at the JV staff the future earlier than. So she confirmed up each and every morning. The one feminine within the room.
“She did it,” Jones mentioned. “And the rest is history.”
Laue used to be a third-string kicker in 2023 as a teenager and didn’t get many alternatives past occasional PATs and kickoffs, most effective upcoming video games were given out of hand. This future, on the other hand, she is in a forming function upcoming beating out two alternative kickers in a preseason festival.
“Growing up, one of my best friends’ older brother, he kicked in high school, and we were both soccer players growing up,” Laue mentioned. “So we made a promise to each other, like, ‘Oh, we’ll both kick in high school,’ kind of as a joke. And then I followed through with it.”
Ultimate pace — in her skillful age but — Laue drilled a 27-yard garden function with 23 seconds too much to raise Helix to a Homecoming victory over Madison.
What a tale!! @HelixFootball kicker Aubrey Laue will get the sport successful garden function with 23 seconds left. Her staff takes the 23-20 win to “Aubrey” chants on homecoming evening. Sports activities are superior! pic.twitter.com/spcey4MJgQ
— Allison Edmonds (@aedmondstv) September 14, 2024
“I was talking to one of the (Helix) coaches the other day,” mentioned Laue, who is thought to be the one feminine starter this future within the San Diego category of the CIF. “And (he) was saying: ‘You’re a player. You actually are a football player. You’re not just a girl who plays football; you’re a football player.’
“So I guess that’s kind of what I’m hoping (for). (That) I’m not just gonna be the girl that was just on the team to just be on the team. I’m actually on the team. And actually playing.”
And this isn’t at some miniature college that struggles to garden a staff. Helix is the alma mater of former USC superstar and Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush, former NFL quarterback Alex Smith and previous UCLA and Colorado schoolteacher Karl Dorrell, to call a couple of. The Highlanders are unwell this future — 2-3 via 5 video games — however they’re one among California’s blue-blood techniques.
Someplace within the Laue folk archives, there’s a photograph of Aubrey as a tender woman dressed in a soccer jersey and throwing her arms up, signaling a landing.
Laue has beloved soccer for so long as she will take into accout.
However earlier than she attempted out for the Helix staff, she first needed to put together certain she knew how one can kick a soccer. Up till a couple of years in the past, she’d most effective kicked football balls as a goalie.
“It was definitely a little bit different,” Laue mentioned. “I just went out one day by myself just to see how it was, and then I started going to a kicking coach. I started doing private lessons and stuff, and then I just started getting used to it and getting better at it.”
Laue’s flow area is ready 40 yards. However on Homecoming evening, she used to be beaten when she overlooked an too much level previous within the contest.
“She beat herself up more than anything,” Jones mentioned. “It’s interesting because I asked her, like, ‘Hey, what happened?’ And she didn’t blame the snap, she didn’t blame the hold; she didn’t blame anything. She said, ‘Coach, I just hit it too far left.’”
Helix believed it had scored the game-winning landing on a fourth-and-short play games within the ultimate seconds, nevertheless it used to be negated for a preserving name. Jones had a choice to put together with the rating tie at 20-20.
“We had to move it back to the 10,” Jones mentioned. “And I was like, ‘Well, it’s fourth-and-10. I know Aubrey’s range.’ I said, ‘You know what? We’re kicking a field goal. We’re gonna give her (a chance).’”
As Laue ready herself to pull the garden, the nerves began to creep in. She knew that if she hadn’t overlooked that too much level previous within the contest, Helix would were forward 21-20 and wouldn’t have wanted any late-game heroics.
When she trotted onto the garden, she heard yelps from the people — from the opposition and from the Helix fanatics, who had been chanting her identify in unison.
Laue took a deep breath and prohibited out the noise.
“Before I went out there, my holder was like, ‘Oh, you got this. This is nothing.’ He kind of hyped me up and stuff,” she mentioned. “I’m like, ‘OK. It’s just like practice. I can do this. There’s no difference.’”
Laue instantly knew her kick used to be excellent. She nearly fell over when her teammates mobbed her, leaping up and unwell throughout her to honour the largest age of her profession. As she skipped off the garden together with her red mouth safeguard nonetheless in park and her golden pigtails whipping within the breeze, the pep band fired up the combat music and Helix’s training body of workers waited at the sidelines, able to honour.
“She’s our player, and we love her,” Jones mentioned.
It residue Laue’s most effective garden function effort of the season to past.
“I’m so proud of her,” mentioned Evan Arapostathis, a former NFL punter and Helix alum who now works with consultants at the soccer staff.
“You have no idea.”
Ultimate summer time, Laue advised Jones she had to pass over a couple of days of offseason exercises.
“As a coach,” Jones mentioned, “I was like, ‘Why are you missing?’”
That’s when Laue unfolded about her scientific situation.
“I have a congenital heart disease,” she mentioned. “So for me, basically, I was born with holes in my heart.”
Laue had her first coronary heart process at past 1. On account of her situation, her oxygenated and deoxygenated blood would combine, she mentioned, which means her coronary heart wouldn’t have enough quantity oxygen when it pumped out blood to the extra of her frame.
She wore a coronary heart observe as a baby and visited a heart specialist per month. When she used to be 3, she had a 2d catheter process to assistance healing the holes however wanted extremity open-heart surgical procedure a future after when her mom spotted she used to be urinating blood the colour of cloudy espresso.
Docs had been in a position to manually region Laue’s holes. She now visits her heart specialist each and every alternative future for checkups.
Ultimate summer time used to be her ultimate past as a camper at Camp del Corazon, a five-day, free-of-charge camp at the California coast for youngsters ages 7 via 17 with coronary heart problem. That’s why she wanted a couple of days off from soccer exercises.
Laue first of all didn’t inform her coaches about her situation as a result of she didn’t need to be handled another way.
She now has negative restrictions and will play games any recreation.
“I’m really grateful for that because I know some kids are still limited to what they can do even after all their treatment,” she mentioned. “It’s been a part of my life.”
Laue is making use of to varsities and plans to review medication and sooner or later turn into a pediatric heart specialist, serving to youngsters identical to her.
She is aware of a heart specialist who additionally has congenital coronary heart problem and has all the time admired how he pertains to his sufferers. Founding in 2026, she plans to turn into a counselor at Camp del Corazon.
However soccer will all the time be together with her. Two bundle ladies performed arranged soccer within the San Diego category of the CIF in 2023, and Laue is hoping that development continues.
“Definitely do it. Don’t be afraid to do it,” she mentioned of her message to alternative younger women concerned about taking part in.
“When I first started to do it, wanting to do it, people were like, ‘Oh, but you’re going to be the only girl.’ They were doubting. I was like, ‘No, if I really want to go do it, I’m gonna go do it.’ So that’s what I would say. If there’s something you really want to do in life, go do it. Because it could be amazing.”
And regardless that she has negative plans to play games soccer in faculty, her week college higher have a staff.
“I’ve been looking at a few schools. And then I was like, ‘Oh, you don’t have football?’” she joked of her faculty software procedure. “Off my list.”
(Photograph courtesy of Manorack Sukhaseum)
