Elena Pothos North Jersey Female Athlete of the Week

Elena Pothos

Sport: Soccer

School: Old Tappan

Class: Sophomore. Age: 15

Accomplishment: She scored five goals in two games, bringing her season total to eight with three goals against Indian Hills and a pair of goals in a 4-3 overtime win over Ridgewood.

When Elena Pothos made the Old Tappan soccer team as a freshman, coach Maia Levenshus knew she had the perfect player for her system.

"Part of our system is we want our players to empty the tank, and with unlimited substitution in high school, you're free to be able to replace some players when they have nothing left," said Levenshus, who played and was an assistant coach for the Golden Knights before taking over as head coach two seasons ago. "Sometimes when you put a sub in, though, the level of play drops.''

Enter Pothos, literally and figuratively.

"Elena came off the bench for us in the first game last season and she was just phenomenal," Levenshus said. "There was no drop-off at all."

So with several veteran forwards on last year's team, Pothos became a super-sub, coming in midway through each half to give the Golden Knights a spark. By season's end, she was the top scorer for a 14-4-1 club and scored the winning goal in overtime to shock Northern Highlands in the Bergen County quarterfinals.

Now, you can't get her off the field.

"Having confidence is helpful, and having teammates and coaches encouraging to do what I do best is even better," said Pothos, who has rarely played anything other striker since starting the sport at 4 years old in the Northvale/Old Tappan rec program.

"I'm soccer and soccer and soccer," said Pothos, who added club play to her town play while she was only 7 or 8 years old. "I did one year of T-ball in rec when I was very young, but it was always soccer for me. I played some right wing early, but when I got to World Class FC (a soccer club based in Orangeburg, N.Y. under the direction of former Olympian Kazbek Tambi of Ridgewood), they made me a striker.''

"She's a pre-striker and can score from anywhere," Levenshus said. "But she works really well with our other forwards and is always ready to lay the ball off to someone in a better position."

Hence, she added a team leading 11 assists to her 12 goals a year ago.

"I like to have the freedom to dribble and be creative with the ball," said Pothos, who admires the play of legends like Lionel Messi and Neymar, two of the greatest players in the sport's history. "I take a lot of shots but I still find ways to help my teammates score."

Pothos has adjusted to playing the entire game by doing the same thing she's always done in preparation. "I put in a lot of work in training six days a week in and out of season, I do two days of strength work and I'm always working on conditioning," she said.

And the adjustments she's made with the double workload? "Last year, they told me to give it my all each time I stepped onto the pitch, and this year, I'm doing extra reps so I can give it my all over the whole game."

About the only thing she's not certain of is what she wants to do with the rest of her life after she's finished playing soccer.

"I sat down with my parents last week to talk about that and I really don't have a clue what I want to do," she said. "Maybe marine biology, or maybe I want to be a coach or a trainer in soccer."

But at 15, Pothos has plenty of time. For now, soccer can be life.