OGDEN -- For many of today's youth, soccer usually starts at an early age. This happens at four or five years old when parents are excited to see their kids play a sport and have fun.
For Ogden's Cassie Hanson, the start of her soccer career came a little later.
"I started playing at a later age, like seven years old," Hanson said. "My best friend was playing and I went and watched a bunch of her games growing up. That's when I thought I would try to play soccer."
For Hanson, playing would become a passion that she developed into a major talent. Throughout the years, her steady play helped fuel that love for the sport and it helped make her a better player. It all came together when she started playing competitive soccer for the La Roca club.
"Playing in tournaments all over the country helped get me into the position that I am in today," Hanson said. "Our club team won nationals last year in Iowa and the girls from that team are all great players. This year, on the high school team, things were different. We knew we wanted to get better each and every game and my job as captain was to make sure that we played to our potential.
"I really feel like we had that potential in us to be great this year. All the girls that I played with worked hard from the end of last season to the end of this season and it showed in the way that we played."
Hanson, a forward, did a little of everything this season for the Tigers. She tallied 20 goals, and also dished off 16 assists on goals scored by teammates.
Because of the team's finish and the overall statistics, Hanson is the 2011 Standard-Examiner Girls Soccer All-Area Most Valuable Player.
"I am kind of shocked that I was called and named the MVP," Hanson said. "I have been playing for so long that I just wanted us to win the state title after winning a national championship. The people that I should really thank are parents (Jon and Cherie) and my family. All the games and travel and money, I really appreciate everything they have done for me."
Hanson's humble approach to it all is rather refreshing. That and the experience that comes from being a starter on a team that played up in the 4-A classification got the Tigers ready for the season.
"It was tough to play up in 4-A with great teams like Bonneville and Sky View," Hanson said. "We had to play against teams that were ready to play from the beginning. Our team fought and scraped for everything that we got last year, but that experience against those teams helped us realize how much farther we had to go to be a championship team.
"Those games got us through some of the tough battles that we had with those teams. They were bigger and faster and more physical that we had ever played against and we knew in order to get better, we had to find that happy medium between playing our style of soccer and being physical."
With the Region 11 title wrapped up early, it was on to the playoffs where all sorts of playing scenarios happened in four short games.
Ogden played its first-round game against a tough Desert Hills squad, but took control of their game early and finished with a solid 5-0 win.
"The worst part of playing in the state tournament this year was that we were nervous because we had our own expectations of what we wanted to do with so much negativity around us," Hanson said. "We were nervous before the first game, but once we got in a rhythm and flow, everything else came naturally to us."
The second part of Ogden's nightmare according to Hanson was the disbelief from the student body and the staff at the school.
"They told us because we played against soft schools in our region that there was no way we were going to win any game in the state tournament," Hanson said, describing the situation that they found themselves in before the first game started. "They said 'It's over for you, there's no way you can win' -- you know, things of that nature. We just used it as a motivation for us to get better and go out and win games. Once we started to do that, they believed like we did that we were going to win it all."
After beating Desert Hills, they ended up with a two overtime victory over Snow Canyon on their own home turf. It took penalty kicks, but they walked away winners to move into the semifinals.
"I was worried that the girls might lose faith, but we held it together and once we got into PKs, I knew we were going to win this game too," Hanson added.
Two more wins, including Hanson's game-winner against Park City in the semifinals and Avery Calton's game-winner against Cedar in the championship game were enough for everyone to celebrate.
"As a team, we never got too high or too low in our celebrations because we knew what goal we had in mind to start the season," Hanson said. "As the season went on, we just took care of each game and ended the way you should end every season -- with a win.
"I have to thank our coaches (Jason Steiner and Sterling Castle) for what they taught us throughout the season. They were a great balance of attitude and execution which is something every team needs."
Steiner was impressed with how Hanson handled everything.
"It has been fun to watch Cassie grow the past few years into what she is today," Steiner said. "Not only did she produce on the field, she was the one that led this team. She would get after the girls in practice if things weren't going right, she would encourage players when they did something wrong. And that is sometimes hard to do as a player/captain.
"She was a pleasure to watch on the field because she never got rattled and led the team with confidence. That is something that every coach could only hope to have."
With only out-of-state offers to mull over, Hanson's future in soccer still has possibilities. But with her work ethic and championship mentality, there is no reason she shouldn't succeed on the field. And being the MVP doesn't hurt that humility or confidence that she carries with her.
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