By Abby Drake
Staff Writer
From a 5-year-old playing recreational soccer on the Ponytail Express to captain of the Coppell High School girls soccer team, senior Danielle Herubin has developed into a very talented player.
Herubin starting playing soccer in kindergarten, where she played on a recreational team through fifth grade. She then graduated into a club league, the D-Feeters where she played for the next six years.
Along with her club team, Herubin started on the Coppell varsity as center midfielder for all four years of high school. With her experience, Herubin acts as a leader for the other players and has been a captain for both her junior and senior years.
“As captain I have to make sure the team is focused, make sure everyone plays their best and communicate with the coach about the team,” Herubin said.
Although her role as captain requires her to be extremely devoted to the soccer team, Herubin is involved in Coppell High School in many different ways. She is vice president of the Senior Class, member of National Honor Society, member of National Spanish Honor Society, Spanish club, and works at Gideon Tutoring for kids.
“It is crazy how Danielle makes so much use of her time,” senior Midfielder and forward Chioma Ubogagu said. “Not only is she playing club and high school soccer, she has a job on the side and takes several AP classes as well.”
To stay within the top ten percent of the senior class Herubin has to find the perfect balance in her time between Soccer and school.
“I have to prioritize my activities and talk to my teachers to make time for both school and soccer,” Herubin said.
Herubin is well qualified to play soccer collegiately and several schools recruited her, including Baylor, Iowa, North Texas, East Carolina, South Carolina, SMU, Rice and UT-El Paso.
Despite the bounty of interest from colleges, however, Herubin decided not to play in college and is instead attending the University of Alabama Honors College.
“I would like to see her play in college because I know how good she is,” CHS’s girls soccer coach Chase Stricker said. “It’s a shame that she slipped through the holes of recruiting, but she knew what she wanted.”
According to Herubin there is a lot of potential for the Cowgirls varsity soccer team to win state again because of the amount of talent and chemistry, and according to Stricker Herubin is instrumental in the team’s success.
“She is a huge part of our team, a great captain, an immense threat to our opponents, and shows leadership on and off the field,” Ubogagu said. “She is a great person and a phenomenal friend.”
As she goes into her final year as a CHS soccer player Herubin plans to play her heart out and put a good end to a long and well played soccer career.
“Danielle brings to the team a great deal of experience, amazing work ethic, strong leadership skills and she is a great young lady,” Stricker said.
