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It’s like a defender shadowing an offensive player in soccer. The movement of the one closely follows the body position and offensive actions of the other with the ball, reflecting — mirroring — body position. The two players’ silhouettes become one.
The analogy may be a little melodramatic, but here’s how Tahlia Zadeyan, La Jolla High’s talented center back, describes the way her planned steps post-high school will mirror her father Ankist’s: “He took a gap year, I’m taking a gap year. He went to Europe (France), I’m going to Spain (to train in an academy). He played at a school in North Carolina (UNC), I’m going to, too” (a scholarship to Wake Forest beginning fall 2025). The senior Zadeyan later transferred to play at USF on the West Coast.
“(The offer from) Wake Forest was really good timing,” said “Tahli,” as family and teammates called her. “I committed to go to Spain (FC Odisea in Castellon de la Plana, on the east coast of Spain, north of Valencia) before I committed to Wake Forest.” On the track to compete in Division I NCAA soccer, “I’ll be a year older, stronger. I’m not ready to go to Wake Forest now.”
The Demon Deacons in Winston-Salem, N.C. had a slot at center back, not for fall 2024, but for 2025, with the 5 feet 10 inches tall Eastern League Player of the Year fitting in nicely.
Competing in local soccer for 11 years, Zadeyan put her resume and videos out on recruiting sites in anticipation of the NCAA process. She’s glad she committed to the university early. “There’s a pressure to commit, with competitive athletes. That can be a stressful experience when others are looking” for schools.
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Zadeyan says she won’t be able to take college courses while enrolled in the intense 10-month training at FC Odisea (“Odyssey” in Spanish) beginning in September 2024, other than maybe a course to learn Spanish (she is adept in French, having attended the French-American School on Mount Soledad during middle school). “Otherwise, I’d be considered a transfer student,” which she doesn’t want. “I get a year off from studying,” she sighed, taking a Presidents Day break amid homework and projects at La Jolla.
Zadeyan was just named Athlete of the Year in the Eastern League, as well as a two-time First Team All-League selection, leading the Vikings to their second straight league championship (7-0-3) under third-year coach Austin Mobley.
From March 31 to April 10 this spring, she will make her third trip to play in the Armenian national program. In each fall of her junior and senior years in high school, she traveled to the small republic near Turkey for training and then a tournament. Her father, whose name Ankist means “calm, repose, tranquility,” and she became aware of the opportunity for her to gain Armenian citizenship and play for her ancestral country a few years ago, which she did.