FARMVILLE, Va. -- Soccer doesn't just run in the
Kelsey Pardue family. It also dribbles, passes and scores, and it has been that way for several decades.
The older sister and brother of Pardue, a senior striker for Longwood, also played at the Division I level in Virginia. But the soccer roots run back two more generations for Pardue, a former standout at Hermitage High School near Richmond.
Her grandfather, Raymond Pardue, was also very involved with the sport in the 1980s in suburban Richmond as a coach and administrator.
"He was coaching my younger brother, who is 12 years my junior," says Ray Pardue, the father of Kelsey. Her grandfather is a long-time resident of Henrico County.
And the younger Ray Pardue coached Kelsey for several years. "I coached her up until U-16. She always played up in age," notes her father.
"I was out there around the age of three in a house league," she says of those four-on-four matches. Her older sister, Sherri, played soccer at Radford and their brother, Tyler, played at VCU before attending Longwood and then playing as a pro for Richmond in the Indoor Premier League.
"It is a soccer family. He instilled that passion in his kids," veteran Longwood head coach
Todd Dyer says of Kelsey's father.
The Longwood coaching staff was able to see Pardue play at the club level when she was in high school.
"I never saw her with her high school team. I saw her with the Richmond Kickers club team and I also saw her with the Virginia state team in the ODP," Dyer says. "That is what sold us, seeing her in those two different environments. I would say she was one of those players that was a little under the radar. We were fortunate to get her here. She got better when she got here. You want it to go that way. She really pushed herself."
Perhaps overlooked by bigger Division I programs, now Pardue is winding down a successful, four-year run on the pitch in Farmville, as she eyes a possible pro career in the sport.
She started all 19 matches as a freshman and led the team in assists with seven in 2010, adding three goals. As a sophomore, she started all 18 matches and led the Lancers with six goals and had six assists for 18 points in 2011. Last year as a junior, she had seven goals and six assists with five game-winning goals.
Last season, Pardue was named the Longwood Female Athlete of the Year, was All-Big South First Team and was National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) All-Southeast Region Third Team.
"She is one of the top one or two players we have had in our program," says Dyer. "From a talent perspective, she brings a lot to our program. She is one of the hardest workers with natural ability we have ever had. It is just unique combination to have that type of ability and blue-collar work ethic."
This year, after playing midfield three seasons at Longwood, she was moved to the striker spot.
"I played midfield my whole life. It has been different," she notes. "I have to find the ball and be able to turn. I don't have to do as much work covering space. It is definitely not as easy as it looks. It has definitely been a learning experience. The hardest part is knowing how to find the ball."
At home Oct. 9, she had one assist in a 4-2 win over High Point. In a 3-0 win at Gardner-Webb three days later, she had two goals, and in a 2-0 win at Presbyterian on Oct. 16, she had one goal. Pardue scored in her fourth-straight match at home Oct. 19 with a goal in a 3-1 win over Charleston Southern as the Lancers improved to 8-6-2 overall and 7-1 in the Big South Conference. Last year, the Lancers were 13-6-2 overall, 8-2-1 in the Big South and advanced to the conference tournament semifinals.
"I think we can go far," she says of the team's second season in the Big South. "Obviously I want to get further than last year, which means getting to the final of the (Big South) tournament and winning that. Obviously we are capable of doing that. We are definitely capable this year."
Pardue has started the first 16 matches and was fourth on the team in minutes played with 1213 and had seven goals and two assists to rank second on the club in points.
"She is a very quiet leader. She leads by example. She is not very demonstrative, but she does the job and she does work hard," Dyer says.
Pardue is on track to graduate in the spring with a major in business administration, including a concentration in marketing.
Playing overseas is an option, but soccer has already taken her to Europe. She went to France when she was 13 with an Olympic Development Program team and played several games, sometimes facing women in their 20s. While in the early stages, Dyer and Pardue have looked into pro opportunities in Australia, and elsewhere.
"It has always been a dream of mine to play professionally. I am considering every option I have. I would like to play in the States. I am weighing my options. I am going to put everything into it," she says.
Pardue is a big fan of Barcelona and striker Lionel Messi. She tries to watch their games on television when she can, and recalls watching European soccer with her father and brother when she was younger.
Editor's Note: Special consultant David Driver is a Virginia native and has covered college sports in the state for more than 20 years. He has been a staff writer for newspapers in Arlington, Springfield and Harrisonburg and has contributed to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Washington Post, Stafford County Sun and The Potomac News in Woodbridge. He was also the first sports editor for the daily Baltimore Examiner. He will continue contributing special feature content to longwoodlancers.com throughout the upcoming 2013-14 academic year as well. A former Division III baseball player at Eastern Mennonite University, David can be reached at www.davidsdriver.com.
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