Niforos leaves her mark at Lane
By Patrick Z. McGavin
On a late April day two years ago, a gray twilight fell on the field at Jones in Chinatown.
The time and place meant serious city girls soccer, and the platform was a great rivalry game between Lane and the Eagles. The game marked a rematch of the city championship from the previous spring.
Lane was the established kingpin, and Jones the insurgent and upstart. Sometimes the notion of a rematch is unfair or misleading if the rosters for each side churn over. This was not the case.
The teams had multiple players back from that city title game. The big games mean the larger platform and the chance for new or emerging players to make their reputation.
Camaron Niforos wrote her own narrative in Lane’s favor. She assisted both of the goals in the Indians’ strong 2-0 Chicago Public League Premier Division victory.
For her toils, sCamaron Niforos feature
By Patrick Z. McGavin
On a late April day two years ago, a gray twilight fell on the field at Jones in Chinatown.
The time and place meant serious city girls soccer, and the platform was a great rivalry game between Lane and the Eagles. The game actually marked a rematch of the city championship from the previous spring.
Lane was the established kingpin, and Jones the insurgent and upstart. Sometimes the notion of a rematch is unfair or misleading if the rosters for each side churn over. This was not the case.
The teams had multiple players back from that city title game. The big games mean the larger platform and the chance for new or emerging players to make their reputation.
Camaron Niforos wrote her own narrative in Lane’s favor. She assisted both of the goals in the Indians’ strong 2-0 Premier victory.
She was named the Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match.
She was a sophomore midfielder and the game representative a breakthrough and announced the Indians’ next significant talent.
“As I got older, I became one of the starters. Your team gets to know each other,” Niforos said. “I have played with so many different girls, and you learn to trust your teammates. You start to do risky things out there.
“I don’t even hear the fans. My teammates are what keep me going. I think about what drives me, and motivates me to do well when we play great teams like Young or Jones.
“I just think I have put way too much time into this. I didn’t train six days a week just to come out and let them win. We are just going to go out and go.”
Flash forward two years, and Camaron Niforos is still in control of her own narrative. At a time where a great many things appear random and out of grasp, that is meaningful.
The dominant themes are toughness, talent, skill, recovery and heartbreak.
The loss of her senior year feels especially cruel given this year’s iteration was perhaps the best in program history and one that had the potential to wreak serious damage, not just against the elite of the Chicago Public League but other top programs as well.
The Premier Division was powered by four excellent teams at the top with Lane, Young, Jones and Payton. Young had its best team in two decades and was ranked no. 11in Chicagoland Soccer’s First 50 poll of the best teams in the state.
Jones was ranked no. 31. Payton was unrated though loaded with promising and returning virtually its entire team from last year.
Lane had the top city ranking at no. 10, justified by its unprecedented run of five-consecutive city championships. In all, this looked to be a thrilling year for city soccer.
Until proven otherwise, Lane was the gold standard and the team to beat. Niforos was a foundation for its notoriety and levels of achievement.
After being named to Chicagoland Soccer’s All-State Watch List during her first two seasons, Niforos earned a spot on the website’s All-State Team last year.
A brilliant passer who sees the field exceptionally well, she demonstrated a great command of the game and an unnerving talent for being in the center of activity.
Her signature game was the Indians’ 4-0 dominant city title performance over Young. Niforos played every position except for keeper. She started at forward, moved to the middle and then shifted to the backline for the final 25 minutes to secure the shutout.
She never left the field in a stellar 80-minute performance.
“Cam is an amazing person on and off the field,” Lane defender Zehra Halilic said. “As a player, she is very physical and determined, easily one of the best players I have ever seen.
“She is a natural leader who loves cheering up the team and getting everybody hyped up.”
Astonishingly Niforos’ career at Lane was nearly derailed before she even started.
As a precocious eighth grader who was a standout in soccer and basketball, she suffered a complete tear of her ACL in her left and right knees less than six months apart.
“First it was my left leg,” she said. “I had just switched club teams, and I was on this great team with players like Malori Killoren and Sarah Harper. It rained the day before, and the field was slick. I just stuck out my leg to stop a ball, and I thought I just hyperextended it.”
Thanks to her youth and athleticism, she made a remarkable recovery in just four and a half months.
“I played the whole basketball season, and we were in the last tournament of the year. Somebody came from behind and just bumped me, and I felt this weird pop in my right knee. It didn’t hurt at all. I played the rest of the game.”
Niforos initially went to physical therapy, thinking the knee was just strained.
“It kept buckling. I went in for an MRI, and it showed a complete tear,” she said.
After the shock wore off, she underwent the necessary therapy and training to return to competition. Going to Lane made perfect sense.
Her older sister Anastasia Niforos, an electric scorer and playmaker, was part of three Lane city title teams. Halilic, with whom she played since they were five years old, had emerged as an elite player in her own right. She was also going there, as were several other soccer friends.
“I wanted to go to a big school,” Niforos said. “They had the best soccer team. My sister went there. The special thing is the reputation they had.”
The only concession she made—very reluctantly—was giving up basketball. Niforos worked exceptionally hard to recover her timing and rhythm.
Even after the two serious knee injuries, Niforos showed toughness, a presence around the ball, and excellent timing. Her role and minutes expanded significantly by the end of the year.
She started a regional playoff game and scored the Indians’ only goal. She was just getting started. By her sophomore year she was a starter and a rising star.
Lane went 19-4-1 last year. The four losses—one by forfeit—were by a combined five goals. Her versatility gave Lane coach Michelle Vale tremendous positional flexibility.
Niforos started at forward and center, left or right midfielder.
“I always played in the middle, so I could see the whole field,” she said.
“My freshman year, I started one game in the second half, and I went to center midfielder, forward and left midfielder, and (Vale) realized she could put me wherever she needed me.”
Her versatility played out in different ways, evidenced in her ability to either initiate or finish on the attack, control the ball and connect to the Indians’ other offensive talents.
“I feel like I am not the most technical player,” she said. “I do a lot with my head. I have been playing my entire life, and I know where my teammates are going to be before they get there.
“I like to think very proactively, of knowing where I am going to be and how to build the next play. I try never to hold onto the ball.”
Read, react and play. Niforos has an intuitive and open style that meshes her talents to those around her. She was an instrumental part of three city championships.
Lane went 49-11-6 in her three years.
This year was to be her crowning achievement. The last seven weeks have been almost hallucinatory.
“For me, it has just been weird,” she said. “My whole life has been soccer. Ever since high school, this has been my craziest time of the year.
“We started our training and conditioning, and it was nonstop, everything soccer. At Lane, we have International Day, and we embrace all of these cultures. I remember that Thursday (March 12), everybody’s phone was blowing up and that school was being cancelled.”
Her senior year has been marked by interruption and breakdown. The boys captured the city championship in the fall and then watched their season end by the teachers’ strike
“It’s also weird physically right now,” she said. “I get up and I go on runs, but it is nothing like the training during soccer. Normally, during this time of year, I see my teammates more than I see my family. We are constantly out and about.
“Things are starting to pick up, but it is frustrating. We saw pretty much the whole basketball season, boys soccer and we got to see everybody else play their senior year.
“That got to us.”
The physical issues Niforos endured helped shape her future plans.
“After I had those injuries, I decided I didn’t want to play college (soccer),” she said. “I just did not want to go through all of this again, training year-round.”
She is set to attend Indiana University to study business and marketing.
Niforos will never leave behind her soccer memories. She was a lead figure in a modern dynasty.
“The thing about Lane girls soccer is that we win, and everybody knows that,” Niforos said. “It is part of our reputation. There are girls from our 2018 season and they are texting me every day.
“I will miss soccer too much, and I will probably play club in college. That part of me is a little sad. I am very excited to start the next part of my life.”
By Patrick Z. McGavin
On a late April day two years ago, a gray twilight fell on the field at Jones in Chinatown.
The time and place meant serious city girls soccer, and the platform was a great rivalry game between Lane and the Eagles. The game marked a rematch of the city championship from the previous spring.
Lane was the established kingpin, and Jones the insurgent and upstart. Sometimes the notion of a rematch is unfair or misleading if the rosters for each side churn over. This was not the case.
The teams had multiple players back from that city title game. The big games mean the larger platform and the chance for new or emerging players to make their reputation.
Camaron Niforos wrote her own narrative in Lane’s favor. She assisted both of the goals in the Indians’ strong 2-0 Chicago Public League Premier Division victory.
For her toils, sCamaron Niforos feature
By Patrick Z. McGavin
On a late April day two years ago, a gray twilight fell on the field at Jones in Chinatown.
The time and place meant serious city girls soccer, and the platform was a great rivalry game between Lane and the Eagles. The game actually marked a rematch of the city championship from the previous spring.
Lane was the established kingpin, and Jones the insurgent and upstart. Sometimes the notion of a rematch is unfair or misleading if the rosters for each side churn over. This was not the case.
The teams had multiple players back from that city title game. The big games mean the larger platform and the chance for new or emerging players to make their reputation.
Camaron Niforos wrote her own narrative in Lane’s favor. She assisted both of the goals in the Indians’ strong 2-0 Premier victory.
She was named the Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match.
She was a sophomore midfielder and the game representative a breakthrough and announced the Indians’ next significant talent.
“As I got older, I became one of the starters. Your team gets to know each other,” Niforos said. “I have played with so many different girls, and you learn to trust your teammates. You start to do risky things out there.
“I don’t even hear the fans. My teammates are what keep me going. I think about what drives me, and motivates me to do well when we play great teams like Young or Jones.
“I just think I have put way too much time into this. I didn’t train six days a week just to come out and let them win. We are just going to go out and go.”
Flash forward two years, and Camaron Niforos is still in control of her own narrative. At a time where a great many things appear random and out of grasp, that is meaningful.
The dominant themes are toughness, talent, skill, recovery and heartbreak.
The loss of her senior year feels especially cruel given this year’s iteration was perhaps the best in program history and one that had the potential to wreak serious damage, not just against the elite of the Chicago Public League but other top programs as well.
The Premier Division was powered by four excellent teams at the top with Lane, Young, Jones and Payton. Young had its best team in two decades and was ranked no. 11in Chicagoland Soccer’s First 50 poll of the best teams in the state.
Jones was ranked no. 31. Payton was unrated though loaded with promising and returning virtually its entire team from last year.
Lane had the top city ranking at no. 10, justified by its unprecedented run of five-consecutive city championships. In all, this looked to be a thrilling year for city soccer.
Until proven otherwise, Lane was the gold standard and the team to beat. Niforos was a foundation for its notoriety and levels of achievement.
After being named to Chicagoland Soccer’s All-State Watch List during her first two seasons, Niforos earned a spot on the website’s All-State Team last year.
A brilliant passer who sees the field exceptionally well, she demonstrated a great command of the game and an unnerving talent for being in the center of activity.
Her signature game was the Indians’ 4-0 dominant city title performance over Young. Niforos played every position except for keeper. She started at forward, moved to the middle and then shifted to the backline for the final 25 minutes to secure the shutout.
She never left the field in a stellar 80-minute performance.
“Cam is an amazing person on and off the field,” Lane defender Zehra Halilic said. “As a player, she is very physical and determined, easily one of the best players I have ever seen.
“She is a natural leader who loves cheering up the team and getting everybody hyped up.”
Astonishingly Niforos’ career at Lane was nearly derailed before she even started.
As a precocious eighth grader who was a standout in soccer and basketball, she suffered a complete tear of her ACL in her left and right knees less than six months apart.
“First it was my left leg,” she said. “I had just switched club teams, and I was on this great team with players like Malori Killoren and Sarah Harper. It rained the day before, and the field was slick. I just stuck out my leg to stop a ball, and I thought I just hyperextended it.”
Thanks to her youth and athleticism, she made a remarkable recovery in just four and a half months.
“I played the whole basketball season, and we were in the last tournament of the year. Somebody came from behind and just bumped me, and I felt this weird pop in my right knee. It didn’t hurt at all. I played the rest of the game.”
Niforos initially went to physical therapy, thinking the knee was just strained.
“It kept buckling. I went in for an MRI, and it showed a complete tear,” she said.
After the shock wore off, she underwent the necessary therapy and training to return to competition. Going to Lane made perfect sense.
Her older sister Anastasia Niforos, an electric scorer and playmaker, was part of three Lane city title teams. Halilic, with whom she played since they were five years old, had emerged as an elite player in her own right. She was also going there, as were several other soccer friends.
“I wanted to go to a big school,” Niforos said. “They had the best soccer team. My sister went there. The special thing is the reputation they had.”
The only concession she made—very reluctantly—was giving up basketball. Niforos worked exceptionally hard to recover her timing and rhythm.
Even after the two serious knee injuries, Niforos showed toughness, a presence around the ball, and excellent timing. Her role and minutes expanded significantly by the end of the year.
She started a regional playoff game and scored the Indians’ only goal. She was just getting started. By her sophomore year she was a starter and a rising star.
Lane went 19-4-1 last year. The four losses—one by forfeit—were by a combined five goals. Her versatility gave Lane coach Michelle Vale tremendous positional flexibility.
Niforos started at forward and center, left or right midfielder.
“I always played in the middle, so I could see the whole field,” she said.
“My freshman year, I started one game in the second half, and I went to center midfielder, forward and left midfielder, and (Vale) realized she could put me wherever she needed me.”
Her versatility played out in different ways, evidenced in her ability to either initiate or finish on the attack, control the ball and connect to the Indians’ other offensive talents.
“I feel like I am not the most technical player,” she said. “I do a lot with my head. I have been playing my entire life, and I know where my teammates are going to be before they get there.
“I like to think very proactively, of knowing where I am going to be and how to build the next play. I try never to hold onto the ball.”
Read, react and play. Niforos has an intuitive and open style that meshes her talents to those around her. She was an instrumental part of three city championships.
Lane went 49-11-6 in her three years.
This year was to be her crowning achievement. The last seven weeks have been almost hallucinatory.
“For me, it has just been weird,” she said. “My whole life has been soccer. Ever since high school, this has been my craziest time of the year.
“We started our training and conditioning, and it was nonstop, everything soccer. At Lane, we have International Day, and we embrace all of these cultures. I remember that Thursday (March 12), everybody’s phone was blowing up and that school was being cancelled.”
Her senior year has been marked by interruption and breakdown. The boys captured the city championship in the fall and then watched their season end by the teachers’ strike
“It’s also weird physically right now,” she said. “I get up and I go on runs, but it is nothing like the training during soccer. Normally, during this time of year, I see my teammates more than I see my family. We are constantly out and about.
“Things are starting to pick up, but it is frustrating. We saw pretty much the whole basketball season, boys soccer and we got to see everybody else play their senior year.
“That got to us.”
The physical issues Niforos endured helped shape her future plans.
“After I had those injuries, I decided I didn’t want to play college (soccer),” she said. “I just did not want to go through all of this again, training year-round.”
She is set to attend Indiana University to study business and marketing.
Niforos will never leave behind her soccer memories. She was a lead figure in a modern dynasty.
“The thing about Lane girls soccer is that we win, and everybody knows that,” Niforos said. “It is part of our reputation. There are girls from our 2018 season and they are texting me every day.
“I will miss soccer too much, and I will probably play club in college. That part of me is a little sad. I am very excited to start the next part of my life.”