Memo to the soccer players in the Class of 2031: Keep your head up and an eye out for No. 1, the hard-working player on the women's team in your summer league. Her name is Luaders, and you are about to discover what opponents always have found out: She is out there to play hard, not nice.
Kortney Luaders had never given a moment's thought to playing soccer into her late 30s and early 40s. Who thinks about things like that when you are 18 and just weeks beyond high school graduation? Not Luaders.
The St. Pius X star has had other things to keep her busy. There was a memorable 24-2 spring soccer season. There were stops at McKendree, SIU and Webster to find a new school and a new college soccer home. There was the usual graduation party buzz. And there were preparations for the annual UMB Bank Senior All-Star Game hosted by the Missouri Athletic Club.
Luaders' dance card was full. Worrying about playing soccer into her 30s and 40s, well, that never crossed Luaders' mind.
A funny thing happened when the St. Pius X star, playing with her new Webster University team, recently lined up against a women's U-40 squad in a summer league composed mainly of area college squads: She started thinking about soccer 20 years down the road.
Twice the three-time all-state selection dueled with the women's team, and twice she walked away wowed by the experience.
"I want to be them so bad," she said. "I want to look like them when I'm that age. I want to play like them when I'm that age."
The "old-timers" on the women's team were impressive.
And Luaders did her best to impress, too. The 18-year-old Lancers star scored two goals and notched an assist in two games against the women's squad.
Though this is the time soccer fades into the background, Luaders' schedule has been busier than ever lately. Not only has she been playing in games once a week and practicing once a week with her new Webster team, she also had the Missouri Athletic Club's annual North-South all-star game to prep for.
The all-star game was not what the competitive Luaders was hoping for. She signed on planning on winning. She walked away stung by the South's surprising 6-2 loss to the North all-stars.
"It's not what I was expecting," said Luaders.
A terrific defensive sweeper at St. Pius, Luaders played forward in the all-star contest. The move was a natural. While she's been a sweeper for St. Pius for three years, she always has played striker with her WC St. Louis club team and is penciled in as a striker with Webster team
Luaders imagined she'd be part of an offensive juggernaut in the all-star contest. The South lineup featured a couple of the state's premier offensive players. But the offensive juggernaut out of the garage. The North was up 3-0 at half and pushed the lead to 4-0 barely five minutes into the second half.
Luaders said the South team never quite found its rhythm.
"They were ready to play, and we weren't," she said.
Luaders almost always is ready to play. Her calendar has "soccer" scratched on all 365 days.
"It never stops," she said. "It's been soccer season for 11 years."
Luaders' game has changed over the years - "You definitely learn something new every game," she said - but her approach today is the same as it was when she played her first games with the St. John's CYC program in Antonia.
"I play physical," she said. "That's what I love about it."
Whether Luaders' game is a matter of form following function or the other way around is hard to tell. What is clear is this: She is a perfect match for the physical style of play that has a grip on her heart.
"The girls on my team say my rep is that I'm one of the strongest on the field and one of the fastest," she said.
She also is one of the most determined. She is slowed by little and stopped by less. It took a broken left leg to knock her out of a couple games at the end of her junior year at St. Pius. Even then, she boiled over at the thought of being sidelined during the most important part of the year.
"I knew it was broke, and that's what made me mad because I knew I wouldn't play in districts," she said.
The broken bone sidelined Luaders through the summer and into the fall, costing her the 2010 club season.
If the effects of the injury lingered into the 2011 high school season, it was impossible to tell. Luaders anchored the metro area's stingiest defense. While St. Pius' high-scoring offense got most of the notice, Luaders was the heart of a defense that recorded 17 shutouts and gave up only 12 goals all season.
If friends and teammates were looking for an indication the broken leg was 100 percent, they got it shortly after the spring season's first whistle when Luaders moved in on an opponent and took the ball away with a sliding tackle. She was up and controlling the ball almost before the attacker could climb to her feet.
"That's one of my favorite things to do," Luaders said.
The move sums up Luaders' game. It's physical, athletic and daring.
Some players can't make them work. They say slide tackle, the referee says foul.
Luaders doesn't miss with many slide tackles. She can't remember the last time a tackle drew a whistle. Even in the high school all-star game, she made a pair of slide tackles. One of the take-aways led to a South score.
Memo to the soccer players in the Class of 2031, Part II: One more thing for your don't-forget-this list - slide tackles. There will be lots to learn about soccer in the coming years. Slide tackles won't seem like a big deal. Be careful, though, especially when you run into that team of "old women" in your summer league. It's always the same: One moment you think you've got the corner turned, the next you're in a heap on the grass and No. 1 has taken the ball away. I don't want to say I told you so, but ...
