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Wednesday, January 13, 2021

'I have a friend who’s making history' Gabriella Coleman goes way back with Sarah Fuller

Ben Hutchens Like in any good friendship, someone almost broke their nose. OSU women’s soccer senior Gabriella Coleman instantly recalled the time in high school where she almost broke her, then her teammate’s, Sarah Fuller, nose. The D’Feeters Soccer Club was doing a regular shooting drill to close out the final 15 minutes of practice. Coleman, a forward, hammered a shot toward Fuller, who was goaltending. The shot was sent with so much force that when Fuller saved the shot with her hands, she effectively punched herself in the nose. “I was like, ‘Please lord don’t tell me that her nose is broken,’” Coleman said. Fuller paused practice for a moment. “Hang on, hang on, hang on, my nose is doing some kind of thing. No, I think it is just bruised, but you hit it really hard,” Fuller said. The team called an end to practice while Fuller proceeded to forever etch the moment in D’Feeters lore by pointing her phone camera at Coleman saying: “She almost broke my nose.” Coleman and her club soccer teammate, Fuller,

Courtesy of Gabriella Coleman

have remained close friends to this day, even after Fuller jokingly accused Coleman of attempting to break her nose. They met in Coleman’s sophomore year of high school, and their athletic journeys have been tied together ever since. In November, Fuller’s journey became front page news after she kicked off the second half for the Vanderbilt football team, becoming the first female to participate in a Power FIvecollege football game. Fuller had appearances on national television, gained thousands

of followers on social media and heard her name on dozens of talk shows. Even after all that, Coleman is still friends with the same Fuller who she grew up playing club soccer in Farmers Branch, Texas. “All the fun times I had with Sarah were great,” Coleman said. “There were some funny memories.” The in-game highlight Coleman remembers most fondly was when she and Fuller teamed up to score a goal, a rare accomplishment for a forward and a goalie to share. “I can remember, Sarah actually assisted me

on a goal,” Coleman said. “Sarah had a goal kick, she kicked it all the way up to midfield. I got it, and then I just shot it from (the middle of the 6-yard box). It was unreal because she was like, ‘That’s my assist.’” It was the first time Coleman had ever been assisted on a score by a goalkeeper, so after she scored, she was a little shocked. Coleman said she was looking around like “what just happened?” And then she saw Fuller running down the field in celebration. D’Feeters coach Hugh Bradford said

every day he got to work with the team during those years was a highlight. “While (everyone on the D’Feeters) was able to laugh and joke with each other, they were also each other’s biggest competition in terms of pushing each other to achieve the ultimate goal of playing in college,” Bradford said. Even at a young age, both Coleman and Fuller had a quality that separated them from other players on their club team. “(Gabriella) was very competitive, and it didn’t matter if it was in practice or in a game,” Bradford said. “Sarah was the same thing; she was very very competitive. I remember she made a save in one of our games where she went in the crowd and actually knocked out one of her own teammates getting to a ball. She was very competitive in the environment and wanted to be the very best and was willing to do whatever it took.” In the play Bradford described, Fuller was defending against a ball that was crossed in the box, so she entered a group of players to punch the ball away. In the scrum, Fuller’s knee struck the head of one of her teammates, knocking her out and leaving her with a concussion. See Making history on page 2

The R-factor

The time Bunyawi Thamchaiwat broke a racket

my conscience is back, my thinking is back, it comes back to positive right away. It’s so weird.” Weird as it is for her to have this automatic response every time something snaps inBen Hutchens side of her, it works in ThamBunyawi Thamchaiwat chaiwat’s favor. has broken one tennis racket in She continued describing all her years of playing tennis. the match in which she broke “I was a kid, I was 17 the racket. years old,” OSU junior Tham“When I saw that it was chaiwat said. “I didn’t hit broken, my conscience came it that hard, I just slammed back. I was like, ‘Ok I need to the head of the racket to the focus,’ and then I come back to ground and it broke. That was win,” Thamchaiwat said. my first and last time.” OSU tennis coach Chris Thamchaiwat wasn’t Young was asked if, in all his proud of the fact that she broke years of playing tennis, he had the racket, she even told her ever broken a racket. dad that she had broken it in “Yeah, I don’t want to the process of playing reguadmit to that,” Young said. “I lar tennis. The reason behind would say most tennis players Thamchaiwat’s outburst was have lost their cool at times because of her play on the and those types of things have court. happened, hopefully for me “I was about to win that that was in my past.” match and the opponent came That statement can cerback,” Thamchaiwat said. “I tainly be interpreted different was like, ‘Why are you doways, but one thing for sure is ing this? Why did you miss Young and Thamchaiwat have the ball? You need to win the dealt with frustrations on and match.’ I just got mad at myoff the tennis court. self and hit the racket to the “We talk about it in our ground.” program all the time: the R Thamchaiwat described factor, which is how you rewhat happens to her after she spond to events in your life,” gets frustrated. Whether it is Young said. “How you respond smashing a racket, slapping a is going to lead to the right ball away in anger or showing kind of outcomes, and so it’s Joel Devick/ O' Colly outward displeasure, she alreally important for us to reCowgirl junior Bunyawi Thamchaiwat returns the ball during the Big 12 Conference Fall ways has the same response. spond properly.” Series Championships on Friday, November 6, 2020, at Greenwood Tennis Center in Still“Every single time that something happens really bad, sports.ed@ocolly.com water.

Page 2 Wednesday, January 13, 2021

sports

Making history... Continued from page 1

“Her teammate paid a price, but that’s what you need to expect from your goalkeepers,” Bradford said. “Not everyone is willing to put themself in harm’s way to keep a goal from being scored or to help their team win.” The same competitive fire that caused Coleman to play with unending determination in practice and caused Fuller to accidently concuss her own teammate is the same fire that helped them both get college scholarships. Coleman to Mississippi State and Fuller to Vanderbilt. While both playing in the SEC, in 2018 the former teammates called each other an opponent. “It felt a little weird and different because I was so used to having her on the same team as me,” Coleman said. “I was like, ‘Dang I have to go against her this time.’” It was a rough game for Coleman and Mississippi State. She was on the field when the Bulldogs surrendered the deciding goal in the last stages of the game that cost her team a win. They both cherished playing against each other in a collegiate match, but when Coleman transferred to Oklahoma State, the in-season matches were no longer likely. Fortunately for their friendship, Coleman and Fuller continued to remain tight because of what they did in the offseason. Neither player had branched too far away from their familiar Texas roots, they lived only 45 minutes from each other and trained at the same soccer facility in Plano, Texas. Coleman said she sees Fuller there often over winter break when both players are back from school, and in the summer, they train together nearly every day. It is at these training sessions in Plano where both players unwind and reflect over what a wild ride the last two months have been for Fuller. In fact, the first full conversation they had since Fuller’s accomplishments was in this hometown retreat. “(Our first conversation) was good,” Coleman said. “Sarah was excited and said, ‘Tt’s a lot.’” “I bet, you’re a celebrity now,” Coleman responded. Although Fuller might be seen as a celebrity to those on the outside, its different for Coleman and the people who have known her the longest. “But to all of us, we still see

her as Sarah Fuller, old teammate, friend, best keeper ever, hard working person, that’s how we see her,” Coleman said. We all don’t treat her differently; she is still the same Sarah.” Coleman addressed the people who look at Fuller’s meteoric rise to fame as a publicity stunt she orchestrated to make herself famous and to change the way she is talked about. “I know some people who don’t know Sarah could possibly think that she could be cocky and everything about it, (but) she’s not,” Coleman said. “If you actually get to know her, she’s a pretty chill person.” Coleman said that across all of women’s college soccer, there are probably some women who are jealous of Fuller and the opportunity she got. There is not a hint of that sentiment on the OSU Cowgirl soccer team or from Coleman herself. “I (told Sarah), ‘You’re the person who got to make a difference, it could have been anybody else, but it got to be you,’ and I’m so proud of her for that,” Coleman said. Fuller never expected to get an opportunity to kick a football in a Power Five game, but when she got the opportunity, she couldn’t turn it down. “I knew she wouldn’t pass that up if it was something, she was capable of doing and she proved that she was capable of doing it,” Bradford said. Since taking that opportunity, Fuller’s life is forever changed, but one thing that has stayed the same is her friendship with her old club soccer teammate. On that November afternoon in Missouri, many people watched a girl kick off the second half of a football game. Coleman watched someone whose nose she had almost broken, who had assisted her as a goalkeeper and who trained with her every day of the summer kick off the second half of a football game. The moment Coleman saw Fuller trotting out from the sideline to begin the second half meant more to her than it possibly could have for almost anyone else watching the game. “I was like, ‘Gosh, my friend is about to kick off in a Power Five game. I have a friend who’s making history.’” sports.ed@ocolly.com

Courtesy of Gabriella Coleman

FOR RELEASE JANUARY 13, 2021

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Page 6 Wednesday, January 13, 2021

sports What the ‘most important women’s college soccer moment of the year’ means for the sport

soccer and what impact it has on the sport. Hugh Bradford coached Fuller while she played in high school, with the D’Feeters Kicks Soccer Club. “I think it opened more doors Ben Hutchens for women, in that there is no ceilThe most covered moment of ing to what they can do,” Bradford women’s college soccer of 2020 said. “I don’t think it’s going to didn’t even occur on a soccer field. change how they play collegiate On Nov. 28, Vanderbilt goal- soccer because collegiate soccer in keeper Sarah Fuller kicked off the its own right is very, very demandsecond half of a football game ing.” against Missouri, becoming the “(Fuller’s kick) will open first woman to play in a Power more doors for female athletes Five collegiate football game. It to be able to play in the college was a monumental moment for football ranks from a placekicking women’s college soccer. standpoint… and not just female The O’Colly asked one of athletes, but male athletes on socFuller’s former coaches, a former cer teams as well. I think colleges teammate, and a current college might start to look more at them coach to quantify how big the because of the years of training in moment was for women’s college doing that particular skill.”

Gabriella Coleman is a senior forward on the Oklahoma State soccer team. She was a teammate of Fullers’ when they both played on the D’Feeters together. Coleman said Fullers’ kick was probably the most important moment of the year for women’s college soccer. “Sarah just came off of winning an SEC championship to being the first female athlete to kick an extra point in a Power Five school. I feel like that was a big deal in 2020, especially for women in general,” Coleman said. Collin Carmichael is the current soccer coach at Oklahoma State. “To me, the biggest thing (Fuller’s kick did), is it draws attention to our sport,” Carmichael said. “Anytime the spotlight goes on to collegiate soccer, specifically

women’s soccer and a great athlete like Sarah who seems like a great kid and a very good student athlete, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. “I’m not sure you’re now going to see 50 women’s college soccer players kicking field goals for a football team… I’m not sure you’re now going to have 5000 fans at Neal Patterson Stadium instead of 2000 because somebody kicked a field goal at Vanderbilt, I’m just not sure you see that kind of trickle down. “I just think it was a cool moment for women athletes, again, kind of breaking through a ceiling and getting to do something no one’s ever done before.” sports.ed@ocolly.com

Vanderbilt's Sarah Fuller (32) kicks off in the second half against Missouri at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Missouri, on Saturday, Nov. 28, 2020. Fuller, a senior goalkeep-

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ACTIVE FAITH! (Part #2) “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.” (Heb.11: NIV) These Ancients of the Bible were commended for their faith. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” (Gen.6:9 NIV) He believed God existed and God rewarded those who diligently sought him. His faith brought immediate action. (Heb.11:8) He did not put the building of the ark on a long “to do” list. It took 100 years to build. During that time he constantly spoke of the judgement that was coming. (2 Pet.2:5) This was the situation in Noah’s day. How about our day? Do we believe God exists? To so many, God is something of the past; one you give an hour or so every Sunday morning, because of tradition, but he does not truly count

for much in life. So this moves us to turn to things that have only temporary pleasure, and build our life activities around them. Noah and others mentioned in Heb. 11, were looking for something lasting, something God had promised. They realized they were strangers and pilgrims; living here for a short time. They were living for something better. (Heb.11:13-16) It is so worthwhile to read and reread the New Testament and consider what was the hope of the early Christian leaders; they passed on to all the believers. It was not centered in this present life. They were “running a race;” living a life centered in the example of Jesus himself, and in those who walked with him during his earthly life. We can do the same; live for the eternal, present ourselves to Christ, and let him use us to bear lasting fruit.