By Aaron Coe
Herald Writer
SULTAN — When Heather Howard took the field for her first soccer game as a second-grader, she was one scared little girl.
She didn’t want to get hurt, and was afraid she might get her uniform dirty.
"I had to look pretty, you know," laughed Howard, who is a junior on the Sultan soccer team.
Oh, how things have changed.
Long over her fears of hurt and dirt, Howard has developed into the most prolific scorer in the North Cascades Conference and one of the top players in Snohomish County.
Howard, who also plays for the Snohomish United U-17 select team, scored an astounding 15 of her team’s 31 goals while leading the Turks to an 8-2 record.
Her teammates say she’s not scoring goals because she’s an attention craver. She’s simply a fast and heady player who knows where to be when it counts.
"She’s not a ball hog," Sultan midfielder Heather Allen said. "She’s just always in the right place at the right time."
When she finds that place, she’s not afraid to knock an opponent out of it. Like a quality center in basketball, she loves to post up a defender, give her a little body bump, rotate and score.
A 5-foot-6 Shaq.
Then she’s gone before the defender can pull herself off the turf.
"I don’t like people to push me around," Howard said. "Sometimes, I have to teach them a lesson."
But Howard is certainly not all about bumps and bruises. She’s fast enough to have competed at the state track meet both her freshman and sophomore years.
Last year, she competed in the 200-meter run and helped her team finish fourth in the 400-meter relay.
But, it’s the 800 relay she can’t get out of her head.
The Sultan team did not finish its preliminary heat because Howard fell while handing the baton to third-leg runner Julie Graham.
"I just fell on my face," Howard said. "It was very embarrassing. I cried for two hours."
Things like a bad moment in athletics were put in perspective for Howard on Aug. 6. That’s when her father, firefighter Isaac Howard, was seriously injured during a training exercise in Gold Bar. Howard, who was a volunteer deputy chief for the Gold Bar Fire Department in addition to his paid position as an Edmonds firefighter, was one of four injured when a live-fire training trailer exploded. He has since lost one eye, but hopes to regain full vision in the other.
One positive of the accident has been the time he’s been able to spend with his three children, Heather, Desiree and Jacob. He’s now a regular at Heather’s games.
"(Heather) has to spend more time with me because she has to drive me," Isaac Howard said. "She’s been a great kid, but I shouldn’t say that because she’ll ask me to raise her allowance."
The family has handled the situation as well as could be expected. They say they knew the risks firefighters face, which is something most of America learned on Sept. 11.
Sultan coach Andrea Fuller has been impressed with Howard’s play and ability to overcome her family’s adversity. Most of all, Fuller likes how Howard blends in with the team.
"She’s a real likeable girl and a very good teammate," Fuller said. "She’s had to grow up a little faster than normal and do some things that a parent would normally do."
And on the field, she’s doing things a junior doesn’t usually do. She’s developed into a leader of a team that has only two senior starters. They respect her toughness along with her ability to keep the team loose in tight situations.
"She makes everybody a little more eased about everything," Allen said. "She make us realize that it’s not that big of deal, but it’d be cool if we won. She gets along with everyone."
Everyone except for the defenders she embarrasses.
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