Sheila Alldredge
January 22, 2008
Lillie Reed
January 24, 2008
Jessica Herradon had a tough time adjusting to the first grade.
“She would cry every day at school and I’d have to come pick her up,” joked Kathy Herradon, Jessica’s mother. “She was always a very shy child.”
In an effort to bolster her daughter’s confidence, Kathy signed Jessica up for youth soccer.
These days, the only tears being shed might come from the opposing netminders she regularly shreds.
In scoring four goals during the first half of Terrebonne’s 7-0 victory over South Lafourche on Jan. 11, Herradon, a junior forward, recorded her 100th tally as a Lady Tiger. Through Monday, she had amassed 110 for her high school career.
“She (Herradon) is a great all-around player,” said Terrebonne coach Julio Contreras. “She’s been playing since a very young age. Therefore, she has very good skills.”
And those are …
“She’s a good dribbler, good finisher and has a great attitude,” Contreras added. “She also has a powerful leg and is getting better and better every day.”
Herradon’s 100th goal wasn’t a vision of beauty, but it’s still one she’ll likely remember for years to come.
“It (the goal) came off a crossing pass that I chested in,” she said. “It wasn’t the prettiest goal, but I was excited because I came into that game and knew what I had to do – score four goals – to get to 100.”
As a reward, Kathy took her daughter to Outback Steakhouse to celebrate.
“She had been thinking about getting to 100 for a while, and it was a little frustrating because some games (recently) got canceled,” Kathy Herradon said. “But Jessica didn’t do this by herself. She got a lot of help from her teammates.”
As well as Contreras, who was actually the first coach she ever played under on a team called the PowerPuff Girls in the Houma-Terrebonne Youth Soccer League.
“I was horrible and didn’t know anything (about the game),” Herradon admitted. “It took time to build up any skill.”
Fortunately, she got an additional boost from her stepfather, Juan Trejo, a former professional player in Mexico who coaches the Houma Heat, a traveling soccer team that attracts an elite melange of local talent.
Herradon has been playing forward for the Heat during the past few offseasons and is one of the squad’s leading scorers.
“We were state champions last year, and we’re planning on winning it again,” she said. “Our whole team is good.”
And so is Terrebonne’s, which sported an impressive 16-4-1 overall record and 7-0 District 8-1 following an 8-0 victory over H.L. Bourgeois last week (Herradon netted three goals in the contest).
“We want to finish our district undefeated,” Herradon said. “We only made it to the second round of the playoffs last year, so we want to get as far in the state playoffs as possible.”
Through it all, she’ll keep an eye on the next record she’d like to break: 152 career goals set by 2007 graduate Candice Champagne.
Should it happen next season, the only crying might be tears of joy.
“I was really anxious at first, but now that it’s over (breaking 100), I can concentrate on other things and try to break even more records while I’m here.”
Jessica Herradon (right) recently scored her 100th goal with the Terrebonne girls’ soccer team and is setting her sights on the school’s record of 152, which was set by 2007 graduate Candice Champagne. (Photo by James Frank
- Tri-Parish Times)
