'Annoying' Rushing agrees with Neuqua V.
By Matt Le Cren
Neuqua Valley’s Julia Rushing is trying her best to adapt to the stay-at-home restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.
With schools and private gyms closed and the start of the season suspended indefinitely, Rushing is doing all she can to stay in shape.
“It’s definitely been a challenge,” Rushing said. “I’ve been running every day and then trying to get touches on the ball.
“My sister (Reagan) is also on the team so we do soccer drills almost every day. I’m definitely missing playing with the team, but we’re trying to juggle and dribble the ball around every day in the back yard, basement or the park if there is nobody there.”
Rushing, a senior forward, is like a caged tigress under these conditions. She yearns to run free, as she has throughout a stellar four-year career that has seen her earn eight varsity letters – four each in cross-country and soccer.
Rushing’s blazing speed enabled her to be the top runner on the cross-country team, which she led to the state finals her freshman year. She was a four-time all-conference selection and two-time state qualifier in that sport.
In soccer, the 5-foot-4 Rushing utilizes not only speed but guile to give defenders fits.
“Julia has very good speed, and she’s quick,” Neuqua Valley coach Joe Moreau said. “She’s kind of annoying to defenders, because she uses her size to get underneath taller defenders. That’s very annoying when she can get low on them.
“That’s a strength she has. She uses her leverage. In football, they say low man wins. Julia uses that in soccer.”
Rushing, who tallied three goals and an assist as a junior, likes the intellectual part of the game as well.
“I think (my strength) is just the ability to see the field and know where everybody is and seeing the pockets of space, making decisive runs,” Rushing said. “Those are the things, when you play against all these great teams, that really make a difference in the game.
“It’s more of a mind game at that point to see where the space is and take it.”
Rushing’s two-sport success is unusual in an era of specialization. It is hard enough to excel at one sport at a large school, let alone two, and do it from an early age.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” Rushing said. “I’ve been really lucky to be able to play both sports because not a lot of people get to do it.
“I’ve made some of my best friends from playing soccer and running cross-country. Neuqua is a really great place. We have the best coaches and just a great community of athletes.
“I’ve learned so much from my teammates and my coaches. There’s a lot of great support, so it’s been a lot of fun.”
Most high school players, at least the starters, play soccer year-round. Rushing did, too, until her junior year, when she decided to skip club.
Last year, that meant it took Rushing a little while to get her game up to full speed, but that was not the case this year. Moreau was impressed with her play during training camp.
“The first year I did it it was definitely a challenge but then I kind of figured it out,” Rushing said. “Staying in shape throughout the winter is really important because that’s one of the biggest parts about soccer, so coming into it in great shape is good.
“Over the winter I try to get as many touches on the ball as I can. It’s not the same as playing real games, but it usually comes back to me pretty easily.”
That impresses fellow senior Piper Biziorek.
“When we were doing conditioning before the season starts, she was kind of my running buddy,” Biziorek said. “She is faster than I am because she runs cross-country but I’m the closest one to her so it’s nice to have someone to push me, someone I can follow or pace.”
But Rushing’s most important contribution to the team, Biziorek thinks, is not physical.
“The best thing that she brings to the team is calm,” Biziorek said. “Whenever she’s on the field I’m always amazed about how calm she is. Like whenever she gets the ball, she doesn’t have any panic in her.
“She just kind of flows and moves. She scored a couple goals like that last year. She goes for it. She’s very composed.”
That trait may be innate, but it was enhanced by the training Rushing got through the JKB Leadership program she was selected for as a sophomore. Moreau said she went from being a quiet leader into a more vocal one.
“The beginning of my JKB experience was the summer before my junior year,” Rushing said. “It was a week away where we learned a bunch of skills with other girls from the area who were chosen to be in it.
“It was a really good experience. We talked about team building.”
Rushing and the other JKB students pass that knowledge on to younger students and contribute to the community in a variety of ways.
“Throughout these two years doing it we’ve gone to middle school health classes and talked to them about high school and saying no to drugs and things like that,” Rushing said. “It has been awesome to talk to them and see how they’re feeling about high school.
“We’ve done fundraising activities for Linden Oaks (mental health hospital), and we’ve gotten our teams involved with that.”
Rushing has been involved with a lot of things at Neuqua, not all of them sports-related. The daughter of two teachers has a 4.2 GPA, is a member of the French Honor Society and is active with Peer Partners, who help students with special needs in adaptive P.E. classes.
Though she has decided not to play college sports, Rushing is passionate about continuing to make an impact. She has her college choices down to Penn State or Miami (Ohio), where her older sister, Sydney, is a student, and plans to major in Public Health, a particularly relevant endeavor considering the current health crisis.
“I would probably like to get into research side of it for a big corporation or the CDC,” Rushing said. “That would be awesome.”
By Matt Le Cren
Neuqua Valley’s Julia Rushing is trying her best to adapt to the stay-at-home restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.
With schools and private gyms closed and the start of the season suspended indefinitely, Rushing is doing all she can to stay in shape.
“It’s definitely been a challenge,” Rushing said. “I’ve been running every day and then trying to get touches on the ball.
“My sister (Reagan) is also on the team so we do soccer drills almost every day. I’m definitely missing playing with the team, but we’re trying to juggle and dribble the ball around every day in the back yard, basement or the park if there is nobody there.”
Rushing, a senior forward, is like a caged tigress under these conditions. She yearns to run free, as she has throughout a stellar four-year career that has seen her earn eight varsity letters – four each in cross-country and soccer.
Rushing’s blazing speed enabled her to be the top runner on the cross-country team, which she led to the state finals her freshman year. She was a four-time all-conference selection and two-time state qualifier in that sport.
In soccer, the 5-foot-4 Rushing utilizes not only speed but guile to give defenders fits.
“Julia has very good speed, and she’s quick,” Neuqua Valley coach Joe Moreau said. “She’s kind of annoying to defenders, because she uses her size to get underneath taller defenders. That’s very annoying when she can get low on them.
“That’s a strength she has. She uses her leverage. In football, they say low man wins. Julia uses that in soccer.”
Rushing, who tallied three goals and an assist as a junior, likes the intellectual part of the game as well.
“I think (my strength) is just the ability to see the field and know where everybody is and seeing the pockets of space, making decisive runs,” Rushing said. “Those are the things, when you play against all these great teams, that really make a difference in the game.
“It’s more of a mind game at that point to see where the space is and take it.”
Rushing’s two-sport success is unusual in an era of specialization. It is hard enough to excel at one sport at a large school, let alone two, and do it from an early age.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” Rushing said. “I’ve been really lucky to be able to play both sports because not a lot of people get to do it.
“I’ve made some of my best friends from playing soccer and running cross-country. Neuqua is a really great place. We have the best coaches and just a great community of athletes.
“I’ve learned so much from my teammates and my coaches. There’s a lot of great support, so it’s been a lot of fun.”
Most high school players, at least the starters, play soccer year-round. Rushing did, too, until her junior year, when she decided to skip club.
Last year, that meant it took Rushing a little while to get her game up to full speed, but that was not the case this year. Moreau was impressed with her play during training camp.
“The first year I did it it was definitely a challenge but then I kind of figured it out,” Rushing said. “Staying in shape throughout the winter is really important because that’s one of the biggest parts about soccer, so coming into it in great shape is good.
“Over the winter I try to get as many touches on the ball as I can. It’s not the same as playing real games, but it usually comes back to me pretty easily.”
That impresses fellow senior Piper Biziorek.
“When we were doing conditioning before the season starts, she was kind of my running buddy,” Biziorek said. “She is faster than I am because she runs cross-country but I’m the closest one to her so it’s nice to have someone to push me, someone I can follow or pace.”
But Rushing’s most important contribution to the team, Biziorek thinks, is not physical.
“The best thing that she brings to the team is calm,” Biziorek said. “Whenever she’s on the field I’m always amazed about how calm she is. Like whenever she gets the ball, she doesn’t have any panic in her.
“She just kind of flows and moves. She scored a couple goals like that last year. She goes for it. She’s very composed.”
That trait may be innate, but it was enhanced by the training Rushing got through the JKB Leadership program she was selected for as a sophomore. Moreau said she went from being a quiet leader into a more vocal one.
“The beginning of my JKB experience was the summer before my junior year,” Rushing said. “It was a week away where we learned a bunch of skills with other girls from the area who were chosen to be in it.
“It was a really good experience. We talked about team building.”
Rushing and the other JKB students pass that knowledge on to younger students and contribute to the community in a variety of ways.
“Throughout these two years doing it we’ve gone to middle school health classes and talked to them about high school and saying no to drugs and things like that,” Rushing said. “It has been awesome to talk to them and see how they’re feeling about high school.
“We’ve done fundraising activities for Linden Oaks (mental health hospital), and we’ve gotten our teams involved with that.”
Rushing has been involved with a lot of things at Neuqua, not all of them sports-related. The daughter of two teachers has a 4.2 GPA, is a member of the French Honor Society and is active with Peer Partners, who help students with special needs in adaptive P.E. classes.
Though she has decided not to play college sports, Rushing is passionate about continuing to make an impact. She has her college choices down to Penn State or Miami (Ohio), where her older sister, Sydney, is a student, and plans to major in Public Health, a particularly relevant endeavor considering the current health crisis.
“I would probably like to get into research side of it for a big corporation or the CDC,” Rushing said. “That would be awesome.”