If the ball moves deep into the left side of his defense, Seckman's girls soccer coach Jeff Perry knows not to worry.
For that matter, if the opposing team starts to make a charge or go on a breakaway on the right side of the field, he knows that soon enough that opposing player will face some resistance. That resistance comes in the form of Courtney Keim.
"She is extremely fast," Perry says of his defender. "Her speed is her main strength. If the ball gets past my right defense, she can run across the field and chase the ball down pretty easily."
A Parkway Central player learned that the hard way earlier this month, and she didn't like it. After getting by two Seckman defenders, the Colts' forward thought she was in the clear. Suddenly, however, there was Keim.
"I kind of stole the ball away from her, got in front of her," Keim said. "I controlled the ball, and she didn't like it very much and she kicked my feet right out from under me. I went full speed, head first into the ground."
The 5-foot-4 Keim bounced back up and finished out the last couple minutes of the game. Only later, moments after the final whistle, did she begin to feel dizzy and nauseous. She was checked into the hospital, and it was discovered she had suffered a concussion. She took more than a week off from soccer and missed three games of a tournament at Pacific the following week.
"I was not very happy," Keim said. "It was kind of a freak thing. It was really frustrating because I didn't get to play."
Keim is back now, which is a very good thing for a young Seckman squad which looks to their captain for senior leadership.
Keim is one of three seniors playing for Seckman. The others are forwards Stefanie Kopsie and Loren Mitchell. Though she doesn't usually get mentioned in the box score - Keim hasn't recorded a goal or an assist this season - she has anchored Seckman's backline.
The Jaguars suffered through an early-season six-game losing streak and are just 5-10, but there have been only three games this season in which they have given up more than three goals. Perry, in his first year as the head coach of the varsity, says Keim deserves as much credit as anybody for that.
"She plays every minute of every game," he said. "She is one of the anchors of our defense."
Keim has played as many as four sports in high school - softball, basketball, track and soccer - but this year she decided to focus just on soccer, a sport she's played since she was in kindergarten.
With a history of ankle injuries, she thought the better move was to stay off the basketball court to make sure she would be ready to play soccer at the collegiate level. Now that she appears to have dodged the concussion bullet once again - she also suffered one last year during a trip to Europe - the dream of playing is college is about to come true.
She will be a freshman at Webster University in the fall and in a couple months will be playing on the school's summer soccer team.
The 18-year-old from High Ridge says she won't mind the commute to Webster. Keim, who currently has a 4.1 GPA on a weighted scale, wants to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
So she will have a lot on her plate, but she is certain she can make room for Division III soccer.
"I am very excited," Keim said. "I think I will be able to balance it out. I can't wait."
