BOB ETTINGER
A Bob Ettinger column...
Through her first three years as a goalkeeper for the Geneva girls soccer team, Jillian Nazor put a lot of pressure on herself. She expected nothing but perfection.
Entering her senior season for the Eagles, Nazor resolved to have a little bit of fun.
“I think more in past years I expected to be perfect,” Nazor, the daughter of Jacquie and Deryl Nazor, said. “This year, I wanted to go out and have fun. My freshman year, I went in blind. I went in thinking it would be just like elementary school soccer.
“My junior and senior year, I put a lot of pressure on myself. This year, I wanted have fun with my sister, Morgan, on the team and with my friends around me. When I’ve had fun, I’ve played my best. I did put pressure on myself, but not as much this year.”
“It was her senior year, she really strived to have a memorable year,” Geneva coach Katie Carter said. “Having fun goes along with that. With the team we had this year, there was always something funny or humorous going on.
“That helped them to just go out and play. And as a captain and a leader, Jill tried to put that out there on the field.”
That fun led to Nazor recording seven shutouts as a senior and being named the 2009 Star Beacon Ashtabula County Player of the Year. It is the second time she’s claimed the honor. As a freshman in 2006, she also earned the award.
“I’m happy I won,” Nazor said. “I’m grateful for the team I had that supported me. I’m kind of excited. I appreciate everything my parents have done for me.
“It was kind of a letdown (not to have won it the last two years after winning it my freshman year). But (former Geneva teammate) Krista Blake deserved it the last two years. She’s awesome. I was happy to have her on my team.”
Nazor expects perfection for a very simple reason — failure is just not an option.
“I don’t like to fail,” Nazor said. “Sometimes it happens, but I don’t like it.
“I’m kind of competitive when it comes to sports. I played with the boys a lot when I was younger. When you’re a girl playing with boys, you have to step it up a notch. Playing with the boys made me competitive. It made me want to do my best all the time. That’s why I put pressure on myself to play well.”
And play well, she did.
She had the seven shutouts and made 92 saves as a senior. She also scored a goal.
“It felt good to score one more time before I graduated,” Nazor said.
In her career, she compiled a 48-15-7 record, had 27 shutouts and made 432 saves with a 1.53 goals per game average. She scored twice and had a pair of assists.
“I feel as if I’m doing as much as I can back there to help the team win,” Nazor said. “But I want to be able to help them score, too. I felt it helped our cause to score a goal. Sometimes, you pay attention more to (who scores). It was exciting.”
A big reason for that success was Carter.
“She’s been very influential,” Nazor said. “She gave me positive support my whole career. I’m going to miss her a lot next year.
“This year, she gave me a lot of encouragement. She said it was my senior year, it was going to be my year. She gave me a pat on the back. It’s great to hear your coach has confidence in you. It made me very happy and it made me feel good about how I was playing.”
As if the pressure Nazor put on herself wasn’t enough, she plays the most pressure-packed position in her sport. If she failed in any way, the opponents would score. And in a sport where scoring is at a premium, a single goal can change a team’s fate drastically.
“Mentally, sometimes it’s a difficult position,” Nazor said. “If you fail, you let the team down. If (the shooter) misses, they might get another chance to score. If they score, you can’t take a goal away. Mentally, it’s a rough spot.”
“We do scrapbooks for the seniors and going through the pictures, there are the occasional pictures of Jill with her hands on her hips looking down with that disappointed pose,” Carter said. “Goalkeepers have to have a whole different frame of mind. They have to be crazy. They have to be insane. Not just anybody can play goalie. Well, anyone can, but not well.
“There were several games we were in only because of Jill. We were kept in the games because of the saves Jill made.”
The position is best-suited for the person who believes she has super powers.
“She wears a Superman goalie jersey,” Carter said. “That’s been her theme since she was a freshman. She thinks she can do anything on and off the field. She knows she can do anything.”
One of the reasons Nazor enjoyed her senior season so much was her sister was on the team.
“It was definitely a fun experience,” Nazor said. “I did find her a lot when I was throwing the ball out there. To see her score and being on the team together helped a lot.
“It’s probably something I’ll remember for a long time. It was fun. It was definitely special.”
And seeing Morgan have some success was something Nazor enjoyed.
“I’m very proud,” Nazor said. “Me and my sister don’t say things like that to each other. But I was proud to see her be a freshman and score so much. It was a good feeling knowing she could score and I could make the saves.”
Ettinger is a sports writer for the Star Beacon. Reach him at bettinger@starbeacon.com.
