No. 1 Soccer Mom

By Peter Gobis, Attleboro Sun Chronicle Sports

Not bad for a 22-year-old mother - to have led her college soccer team in scoring, to have netted a single-season record number of goals, to have totaled more points in a single season than any other.

When others might have put their athletic careers on the mantle, she chose to continue to chase a soccer ball.

When others might have opted to put their pursuit of a degree from college on hold, perhaps dismiss the challenge all together, she kept opening pages to her books.

When the hours of exasperation and sacrifice might have worn her down physically and emotionally, there was always a family member there to open the door.

"I'm very lucky," former King Philip High soccer star Kaitlin Lamothe, a senior at Bridgewater State College, was saying over the weekend, prior to the Bears playing (and losing 3-0) to Westfield State in the MASCAC Tournament title match. Lamothe scored a Bridgewater State single-season record 22 goals, totaling a single-season record 52 points, all the while continuing her studies as a Health Education major, all the while nurturing and caring for 23-month old daughter Addisyn.

Lamothe has been named either the ECAC and MASCAC Player of the Week a half-dozen times, is ranked among the top 10 NCAA Division III scorers nationally, will be a finalist for the BSC Female Athlete of the Year and has been selected to the ESPN Division III Academic All-District Team.

Who would have thought that back on Dec. 22, 2006 when Lamothe delivered Addisyn; after spending her freshman year of college at Syracuse, playing Division I soccer for the Orangemen; after gaining 25-30 pounds of birth weight; after returning to Wrentham, that the roads of life and all its challenges would not keep Lamothe on the sidelines?

First and foremost, her mom Nancy. "You step up and do what you need to do, we're very proud of her," said grandma, who might spend anywhere from four to eight hours a day or more tending to a near two-year-old. "It's a pleasure to have a little person in the house, there's no time to rest."

So three generations of Lamothe girls - Nancy, Kaitlin and Addisyn (and often older sister and another former KP great Becky Lamothe) are wearing BSC No. 2 jerseys.

"She's a beautiful person, a great little sister, a wonderful mother and one kick-*** soccer player," chuckled Rebecca.

Lamothe's soccer career may be over at BSC, but her soccer-playing days may not.

In truth, it was many of her former King Philip teammates, like Patti Cronin and Ali Cuozzo, who coaxed her off the baby-sitting couch six months after child birth to join them in a spring-summer women's league in Franklin.

"Getting back in shape was hard, I tried to gain as little as possible, but I still gained 25 pounds," said Lamothe. "I was in pretty good shape, but playing that summer really helped me. They were interested in me, they supported me, they wanted me to get back out there.

"That's a great thing about the King Philip area, there's a great support system. It does kind of tie in with my mindset." It had been Lamothe's dream to play soccer at the Division I level and during her freshman year at Syracuse, she came off the bench as a reserve attacker, playing 30-40 minutes a match. But as fate would have it, her student-athlete career in upstate New York ended after that first year.

She applied to and was accepted at Bridgewater State that fall, most of her course credits at Syracuse being transferred. Unable to play soccer as a sophomore, Lamothe returned to college soccer as a junior and scored 11 goals.

"It was easier to have my family around and commute to Bridgewater State," said Lamothe of her academic and personal options. "I don't know how I'd have done it without my mom. Soccer at Syracuse, being a Division I program, is a little different - it's your life."

Not that the commitment to soccer at the Division III level at Bridgewater State is casual. She has classes, she has practices, she has two, maybe three matches a week. And always in the back of her mind is Addisyn, whose father is former North Attleboro High football-track star and one-time Syracuse track-athlete Marcus Vaughn.

"Skill-wise the game (soccer) is a little different at the Division III level and the game is a bit slower than Division I," said Lamothe, "but I'm glad to be playing. When I got back to playing last year, my mom said that I wasn't using my speed - maybe that's because I didn't have all my muscle back."

The speed came back, the goal-scoring skills too. "Last year was my first year back, it was a new team, I was finding my role," said Lamothe. "I'm not sure why that I've scored so many goals this year, maybe it was just more opportunities."

Like the ones that she gave herself beyond the soccer field, the lessons that she hopes to pass along to her own little soccer star, "my No. 1 fan," beamed Lamothe.

"I'm so happy that I went back," she continued. "I think that I would have regretted it. It's been a great opportunity for me.

"It's a great lesson to follow your heart and don't give up. It's nice for my daughter to see that I'm a good mom and a good soccer player too."