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D'Iberville Futbol Club

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Nov, 2014

Local soccer players share linked past and future

Local soccer players share linked past and future

Published: Monday, November 3, 2014 at 09:52 PM.

Soccer brought four local girls together, and the sport will bond them forever no matter where it leads them.

Stevie-Marie Mullins, Elizabeth Vickers and Taylor Hallmon currently play at Mosley, and Kelli Crowley is a standout at Arnold. They were teammates in the Bay United soccer program as youngsters, long before any of them could have known they all would play college soccer one day.

Mullins, Vickers and Crowley each are seniors, and they have committed to Samford, West Florida and Central Florida, respectively. Hallmon, a junior, has committed to Florida State's recruiting class of 2016.

The four long-time friends all share a deep-rooted affection for the sport and travel hundreds of miles to practice and play with their traveling club teams. Mullins and Crowley travel to Orlando every Sunday. Vickers and Hallmon drive to Atlanta each week.

All four players said that kind of commitment is required for any area player with ambitions of playing at the college level.

We come from a place,” said Mullins, 17, “where you have to make your own opportunities and make the most out of them.”

Mullins, a right-outside midfielder who is particularly adept with the ball at her feet, said she knew she wanted to attend school at Samford ever since she stepped foot on the campus in Birmingham, Ala., when she was 12 years old. Intending to study kinesiology, Mullins said she entertained offers from other schools, but she admits her mind essentially was made up already.


 

I compared everyone to Samford,” she said. “First, I wanted to go to a smaller school. There are 5,000 people there, and it still has the (NCAA Division I) title. They beat Auburn and Tennessee last season. They're doing well as a program. It's a younger program, too, and I want to help it grow.”

Crowley, 17, was preceded at Arnold by two sisters, Corinne and Kirsten, who carved out prolific careers in Marlin uniforms. Corinne Crowley played collegiately at Troy. Kirsten Crowley currently is a defender at FSU and is the only Seminole to play every minute of every game this season.

Mullins said she thought Kelli Crowley's success as a player, at least in part, was influenced by the example set forth by her older sisters. Crowley acknowledged as much.

They're pretty big shoes to fill. Big shoes,” Crowley said. “To watch them have so much success drove me to have success here, too.”

Crowley said she took an unofficial visit to UCF last spring and “knew right then that this was the place for me.” She said she is undecided about a major but is considering the pursuit of a business degree.

Vickers, 17, is a forward and Mosley's returning leading scorer from last season, and she intends to be an attacking presence up front for West Florida.

Academics were the most important thing to me,” Vickers said, noting she intends to pursue a career as a nurse anesthetist. “I like it because it's a small school, and it's close to the Florida beaches, which I love.”


 

Hallmon, 16, is on track to graduate early next year, and she is weighing the option of early enrolling at FSU in January 2016 and bypassing her senior season with the Dolphins.

My plan right now is to play for Mosley,” she said. “But I'm graduating in December (2015). If I enrolled (at FSU) in January I'd get to play spring soccer and get a head start.”

Hallmon, an attacking center defender, said her father and grandfather both attended FSU, and she has been a life-long fan of the Seminoles. She said she is leaning toward studying sports physiology.

We take our RV over there” for tailgating, she said. “I literally grew up on campus. I wanted to go to Florida State even before I played soccer.”

Hallmon said all four players share a mutual admiration for the sport and added that it is a rare occurrence when you see one of them without a soccer ball at their feet.

We'll go to the fields and just pick up a ball,” Hallmon said. “We just love the game.”

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