Girls Soccer: Jasmin Carrera’s ‘non-stop motor’ powers Lane

Updated: April 13, 2012 7:56PM

Jasmin Carrera has the right name. Like the Porsche model, she is sleek and smooth on the soccer field.

The Lane junior forward is the leader and catalyst of the two-time defending city champions. She relishes the opportunity to showcase her talent, beating a defender to a ball one-on-one or creating for herself and her teammates in the open field. 

“Her motor is non-stop,” Lane coach Mike Wasielewski said. “She takes the game and everything about it very seriously, and she’s just a great crunch-time performer.

“She’s a dream player to coach.”

Her immersion into the game was quick and natural, facilitated by her father Isaias, who played in recreational games and friendly matches with friends on weekends when she was a child. “I would play around with him, and he’d put me on the team and from there, I always loved the game,” she said.

She started playing on a Berwyn club team when she was 6 years old, often matched up against girls nearly twice her age. She also started playing against boys. She stood out immediately. Her quickness and toughness made her a player to watch.

“I always played against older players, and then boys, and I learned to use my speed to my advantage,” she said. “When I started with the older girls, they were bigger, and I learned I had to make quick passes, or keep the ball closer to my feet and that helped me with my body.“

Lane is the elite city program, but Carrera has also shined against the Indians’ tough schedule featuring elite suburban and private-school competition. She scored five goals against St. Ignatius and also scored the Indians’ lone goal against top-10 power Waubonsie Valley.

In the Indians’ first eight games, Carrera has 10 goals and 11 assists. Lane has also played well against top programs Plainfield North and Lyons. “We always try to play harder teams and that always helps,” she said. “If you keep playing easy teams, you won’t know your full potential. 

“Some of these suburban teams we’ve played were hard and we lost, but we showed that we could keep up with them. 

She had to overcome her own type of stage fright. “When I was in middle school, everything you heard about soccer was always Whitney Young and Lane. I took the test and got into Lane and I was happy. I was scared at first because I wasn‘t sure I could play at the varsity level but once I realized I could, that just made me happy I could do it,” Carrera said.

She has received recruiting attention from Illinois State, Wisconsin-Parkside and Concordia. Her fiery and competitive nature grows out of a single conviction. “You never know who’s looking at you, so you always play as hard as you can,” she said.

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