By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

It wasn’t a difficult decision for Estelle Esperance to choose Alabama A&M when it was time to sign her national letter of intent.

The Poinciana High senior soccer star did her research and made, for her, the obvious decision.

“I was really being recruited by a lot of other schools, and I thought Alabama A&M and Jackson State in Alabama were the best choices,” she said. “I wanted to stay in the southern area.”

After she visited Alabama A&M, located near Huntsville, she decided it was the place to be.

“Both schools are in roughly the same location, but the thing is that they are big rivals,” she said. “I didn’t visit Jackson State, but after talking to a lot of people about it, I decided that the outlook there didn’t seem to be as positive.”

Esperance for four seasons has been a member of the Lady Eagles varsity soccer program and evolved into a coach on the field.

“What I learned about playing at Poinciana is that because of the competition level, I had to work with a lot of the girls who didn’t come in with as much experience as I had,” Esperance said. “I had to learn how to work with the other players so that they would become better; I had to be a leader so I could help them out.”

Esperance was a striker at Poinciana and is the team’s all time scoring leader (68 goals, 38 assists) and she also played center midfield during her career.

“I have an ability to visualize what is happening up front that allows me to distribute the ball to the right place,” she said. “I’m very fast, so I also played a lot at outside forward. I could bring the ball down the side and then push it into the center of the field.”

Poinciana Soccer Coach Ryans Calmont said Esperance is “a superb student-athlete and a great high school soccer player.”

Calmont said Esperance created most of her scoring opportunities.

“It’s impressive because of the talent she played with, many of (the goals) were unassisted,” he said. “She has tremendous speed and is even faster with the ball. I have had the pleasure of coaching her four years and also watched her grow to be a leader on and off the field.”

Esperance also is a two-time state qualifier for the Lady Eagles track team in the 4 x 400 and the 400. She ran cross country as a sophomore.

“I had to stop doing cross country became my body was wearing out,” she said. “It was too hard to do three sports seasons.”

Esperance said she soon will receive a training program from Alabama A&M so she will be in good condition when she reports there in July.

“They have an orientation program for the freshmen athletes,” she said.

The Bulldogs are coached by Frank Davis and compete in the NCAA D-1 Southwestern Athletic Conference.

Her determination and excellence on the soccer field and on the track will come in handy as she pursues her goal of becoming a cardiologist.

“Probably that, or something related in the medical field,” she said.

Calmont said the Bulldogs are getting a great player.

“She will be a great asset to the team,” he said. “She will be missed, but I look forward to seeing her play at Alabama A&M and fulfill her dream of one day playing for the U.S. National Team.”