Over two prep seasons, Samantha Betters has made the case that she’s the best girls soccer player to ever grace Hernando County. With nearly 100 goals and 50 assists despite missing an entire year with a major injury, Betters has the individual numbers to already secure a prominent spot in the county record book.
But as the forward embarks on her senior season with a Springstead squad aspiring for collective success, she isn’t ready to start putting her eye-popping stats into historical context. “I really want us as a team to go far,” Betters said. “This year we’re focusing more on the team. So individual goals, I’d like to break records and I’d like to do good things. But I’m more focused on the team doing well than on doing well myself… I just go out there and do what I can to help the team. For me, it’s not just about scoring goals. It’s mostly about assisting and helping others get better than getting better myself.”
It’s hard to imagine anyone could do much better than she has thus far. As a freshman in 2012-13, she scored 46 goals to go with 23 assists. Last season, she had 50 goals and 26 assists. Meanwhile, the Lady Eagles went to regionals in both of those seasons, earning a district title and losing in the Sweet 16 to eventual state runner-up Land O’ Lakes last winter, 4-2.
Yet in between was a lost sophomore campaign for Betters, as she ended up sitting out the entire slate while recovering from surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee. “It (last season) was something that was really important for me mentally. Being able to come back and get back into it and play well was something I needed in order to compete at the next level,” Betters said. “I need to be able to know I can compete at this level and I needed to know that mentally I was still strong enough to play the game.”
So what did it take to bounce back from such a significant medical procedure and return to her previous stellar form? “A lot of physical therapy; a lot of physical therapy,” Betters said. “It was all based on me getting done what I needed to get done. It was a lot of perseverance and just strength through adversity.”
She started playing soccer when she was around 3-4 years old, and began playing competitively at age 7 on an under-10 boys club team. Combining a near lifetime of experience on the pitch with her impressive prep resume makes her an easy choice for team captain. However, her qualifications for the position go beyond seniority and status.
“Sammie’s amazing. She might be one of the best female high school soccer players I’ve ever seen,” Springstead head coach Richard Gomez said. “The game of soccer is evolving, and she’s one of those players that is better than players that I played with in high school. The game has evolved and she’s that good… But she’s an unselfish player. She makes people around her better. It’s not that she can score goals. Anybody can score goals. It’s the fact that she makes her teammates better, and that’s all you can ask for in a captain and a leader.”
Already through the first two matches of this season, she has made an impact. In a 4-1 victory over previously unbeaten Nature Coast Tuesday night at Booster Stadium, she scored twice. The first goal came on a penalty kick; the second as she weaved her way through the defense, then slipped past the keeper and shot into an open net.
“The players trust her and they look to her for guidance. She’s a great role model and that’s what she needs to be,” Gomez said. “This is a team game and she’s only one player out of a team. It takes 11 players to play. But she’s a role model that’s going to make those girls better, make the girls around her better. I think that’s what a good player does. A good player makes people around them better, and that’s what she does a very good job doing… So it’s nice to have a player like that. But soccer’s not a one-person game, it’s an 11-person game. We need all those players to be up to par, especially to win a regional. We know what the level is now to win a region. We can’t have any gaps, we can’t have any holes. Land O’ Lakes, they exposed our weaknesses. To get to the next level, we have to tightened all those areas up, we have to play better soccer.”
Gomez believes Betters can go as far as she wants to in the game, whether that ends at the college level or goes beyond. Betters has already committed to the University of Florida. “I’m excited for that. Really excited, actually,” Betters said. “I’ve kind of been a Gator fan all my life and when I was going into school I was looking a lot for academics and a sports balance, and I think academics are really important, especially going to college. It wasn’t just about soccer. I want to further myself for my career.”
She also looked hard at the University of Missouri, but ultimately the emotional tug of becoming a true Gator proved to be a decisive factor. A signing will officially take place shortly after this season, so for now she’ll keep plugging away trying to make the most of her final run with the Lady Eagles.
“I’m not satisfied until we win it all,” Betters said. “We need to just keep working together and get down the passing and get quicker in our game.”
