Pack’s leader on and off field
Nevada soccer player Patrice Godwin’s good luck charm this summer was a little girl named Anika.
“She was in the gym for one of our dodgeball games when we won and then she wasn’t there for the game we lost,” said Godwin, who worked at the summer camp Kid’s University this year. “So I went and found her and said, ‘Every time we play, you are going to be here.’
“She would follow me around all the time. She was always a fun girl to be with.”
Godwin, who has also volunteered for Habitat for Humanity and Renown Medical Center, was named Wednesday as a Division I women’s soccer candidate for the Lowe’s Senior Class Award list. The list consists of 30 student athletes around the country who have excelled in the four C’s: competition, classroom, character and community. Godwin was the only representative from the Western Athletic Conference.
“I think it’s an honor,” she said.
Godwin, 20, is in her senior year with the Wolf Pack. She is majoring in information systems and someday wants to work at Apple or Google, but her volunteering in the past seems to have built Godwin a strong résumé as Nevada’s Mother Teresa.
“(The community) is definitely important to me,” Godwin said. “They’re the reason why we have a program. Doing what I can to sign autographs after games for the kids and help people — that’s what giving back to the community is to me.”
Godwin does much more than sign autographs. Last year, she and the Nevada soccer team went to Renown Medical Center to cheer up children with debilitating illnesses.
“We did what we could to ease the tensions of the families,” Godwin said. “It was one of the most difficult things to see a child in that much pain and it’s not their fault.”
Godwin has also built homes for Habitat for Humanity.
“I love doing hard work and getting down and dirty,” Godwin said. “They didn’t know what they wanted us to do at first so they just had us nail things together and start putting the houses together.”
Godwin started playing soccer when she was five years old in Reseda, Calif., just outside Los Angeles.
“There was a Mexican soccer league that used to wake me up every morning,” she said.
The league would play games at a park just outside Godwin’s apartment in Reseda. Instead of getting upset with their loud games, she decided to start playing the sport.
“I just told my dad ‘I want to do that’, ” she said. “Every morning I’d go to the kitchen and be able to see them. I knew it was something I wanted to do.”
Godwin has gone on to have a successful career in soccer and at Nevada. Her high school team went to the California Interscholastic Federation’s soccer championship her junior year. Her team lost by one goal in the final minutes of the game, but Godwin notes the experience as her favorite in her soccer career.
Last year, Godwin was named Nevada’s Defensive Player of the Year and was on the All-WAC Second Team.
Even with her success on the field, Godwin has never lost sight of the importance of her education.
“School is the No. 1 priority,” Godwin said, who was on last year’s All-WAC Academic team. “It’s always been No. 1 for me.”
Godwin is one of 30 female soccer athletes who made the Lowe’s Senior Class Award list, which will be narrowed to 10 athletes on Oct. 9. National media will then vote on the finalist, who will be awarded Dec. 5-7 at the NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championships in Cary, N.C.
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on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 1:00 am and is filed under Soccer, Sports, Sports CP.
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