Pepperdine Soccer Commit: Caroline Coleman

Then-5-year-old Caroline Coleman stood in her red and black striped uniform and received her SpongeBob ice cream bar — a treat she earned by scoring her first goal in her recreational soccer league.

11 years older now, sophomore Coleman has swapped the ice cream bar for a scholarship. The weekly, hour-long practices while on her first team turned into 11 years of training — and the recreational league became Division I soccer at Pepperdine University.

While most kids were stressing over the new policy banning Heelys in the Indian Hills Middle School hallways, Coleman was planning for college. By the eighth grade, she was attending college recruitment camps and tournaments to meet with coaches.

Though Coleman had always thought she would end up at Stanford University after attending camps there for years, she verbally committed to Pepperdine Feb. 4 after talking to the coach and attending Pepperdine camps for almost two years.

“When I went there, all I could think was wow, this place is awesome,” Coleman said. “It’s kind of cheesy to say but it just felt like home.”

Past teammate and friend sophomore Maisie Sheets thinks Coleman is one of the hardest workers she’s ever met — even as a middle schooler, she would run around four miles every day before hanging out with friends after school.

Pepperdine wasn’t the only school Coleman looked at, but according to Coleman, the academic levels between the schools like Texas University and Saint Louis University were similar, so it came down to preference and location. At Pepperdine she could live in constant sun and 70 degree weather in Malibu, and learn at a smaller, Christian school — an important feature to her.

Coleman can’t play on East’s soccer team due to her spot as an attacking center midfielder on the Sporting Blue Valley Development Academy soccer team.

Coleman’s Sporting Development Academy coach of four years, Adam Lamb, knows she’s ready for Division I soccer. He believes she has a strong ability to get out of tight spaces on the field as well as a strong tactical sense of the game and can anticipate things most players can’t.

“What makes Caroline different from a lot of players is what we call her soccer IQ,” Lamb said. “A lot of players are very athletic or fast or strong. Caroline is a very intelligent player and she sees things in the field that other players don’t see.”

While Coleman can’t commit officially in the sense of signed paperwork until senior year, she is already able to connect with the other verbal commits in her grade. The Pepperdine coaches share the commits’ contact information between them so they can text and Snapchat. They will also get a chance to meet in person during the three tournaments each year the commits all attend with their club teams — the Pepperdine coaches and 70 other recruiters watch them play.

Coleman’s constantly improving skill level combined with her love to play left her and Lamb convinced she would continue to play soccer through college.

“It was never in doubt for me that Caroline would play college soccer at the top level,” Lamb said. “The question is always what’s the best fit for the player.”