STARKVILLE — Noa Katherine Hardin can’t help herself.
Maybe it is the fact she is a red head. Maybe it is her love for the game of soccer. It also could the combination of both of those factors.
Regardless of the reason, Hardin smiles when asked what it is about her that makes her a “firecracker” when she is on the field playing soccer.
“I definitely have an excessive amount of energy,” Hardin said. “I never stop running in the game even when I am about to die on the field, or feel like I am about to die on the field. I just never want to stop. I want to keep going at all times and have high energy on the field. I guess you could call me a firecracker.”
Hardin, who has played the role of firecracker for the past four years on the Starkville High School girls soccer team, will try to take on a similar role later this year when she joins the Itawamba Community College women’s soccer team. On Friday, the 5-foot-1 senior forward celebrated the decision with a signing ceremony in the main office of the high school.
Hardin visited the ICC campus in Fulton and signed a National Letter of Intent in December. On Friday, she made it all official before a group of family, friends, and teammates. The ceremony helped place a punctuation mark on a youth soccer career that began when she was 4 years old. Hardin said she went through a stage when she was 10 to 12 that she thought about quitting soccer. She said playing the sport wasn’t fun, but she said her father, Jimmy, encouraged her to stick with it because he said the benefit of playing a team sport would pay off in the end.
Two years ago, Hardin fell back in love with the game. She said she didn’t want to stop playing and knew she wanted to try to find a place to play soccer in college. That dream started to become a reality late last year, when ICC assistant soccer coach Cody Carson visited the Starkville High campus in November to watch the Lady Yellow Jackets practice. She said Carson watched as she and her teammates played small-side soccer, where the players break up into smaller groups and work on their touch with the ball. She said Carson watched the Lady Yellow Jackets work out for about 20 minutes and knew he wanted to add her to the program.
Starkville High School girls soccer coach Anna Albritton has watched Hardin mature into a leader, so she wasn’t surprised her diminutive field general earned a chance to extend her career.
“Even though you put Noa in a striker position or a midfield position, she shows up everywhere on the field,” Albritton said. “She is one of those versatile players that I can put anywhere on the field other than the goal and she is going to perform, and she is going to give 100 percent every time. That is what she has brought to our program the last couple of years, and we have been able to see her mature and mature into a wonderful player who can contribute to our program and at the next level because she is so aggressive.”
Like Hardin, Albritton pointed to Hardin’s red hair and her aggressiveness for reasons why she feels “firecracker” is an ideal word to describe her. She said Hardin has been a starter at forward or midfield for the past four years and has learned how to be a better teammate, a coach on the field, and a player who can be coached. Entering a match against Northwest Rankin on Friday, Hardin had six to eight goals and more assists on the season.
Later Friday, the Starkville High girls soccer team lost to Northwest Rankin 2-0. The Northwest Rankin boys scored four goals in the second half to snap a 1-1 halftime tie en route to a 5-1 victory. The games were rescheduled from Thursday night due to the extreme cold temperatures and wind chill.
The losses eliminated both Starkville teams from the Class 6A North State playoffs.
“You go from being a selfish little player, not that she was, but most young kids do come in as a selfish little player, to someone who has blossomed into a team player who sees where she needs to get rid of the ball and enhance the rest of her teammates,” Albritton said. “She is a leader. That just comes with playing and being a part of the team for a long time. They have learned to trust her.”
Albritton feels Hardin’s size won’t hold her back at the next level. Instead, she feels Hardin’s size and her mentality may help her.
“I think she is going to do fine,” Albritton said. “When you watch one of our high school games, she is a dominating force, so when I think about her going to the next level, I wouldn’t expect anything less out of her. I expect to go and watch her and see her be a dominating force out there. She is everywhere. Like I said,. she is a little red-headed firecracker. She brings a spark.”
“Her center of gravity is so low because she is so short and she can get up underneath the ball and she is so fast,” Albritton said. “I don’t think she has ever allowed anyone bigger than her to intimidate her. I don’t think I have ever seen Noa allow that to happen. I think Noa is going to be fine.”
Hardin said learning how to balance her fiery personality and her role as a team leader has been a key to her development. She credits teammates Hannah Laird and Alex Mazzola for helping keep her grounded and focused.
“It very hard to be a leader with a lot of energy,” Hardin said. “But I am very equally balanced when I am a firecracker, so I have Hannah Laird and Alex Mazzola, a bunch of the girls working with me. There is not one leader on the team. It is a bunch of us working together. This is the first year of soccer I have had so much fun on the team because we are all working together. There is not one person we are relying on. We are all leaders, so I don’t have to be a stress that I don’t get to be a firecracker because I have a bunch of other leaders who are like, ‘You need to chill out.’ ”
Follow Dispatch sports editor on Twitter @ctsportseditor.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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