Former Auburn star helps Gryphons' goalie reach new heights

Rocky Mount goalie coach Amy Howard, left, kicks the ball to goalie Ty Arrington as she trains with her Thursday during practice at Rocky Mount High School.
©Telegram photo / Abbi O’Leary

Rocky Mount goalie coach Amy Howard, right, kicks the ball to goalie Ty Arrington as she trains with her Thursday during practice at Rocky Mount High School.
©Telegram photo / Abbi O’Leary

Rocky Mount goalie coach Amy Howard demonstrates a diving technique with goalie Ty Arrington as she trains with her Thursday during practice at Rocky Mount High School.
©Telegram photo / Abbi O’Leary

Rocky Mount goalie coach Amy Howard, right, kicks the ball to goalie Ty Arrington as she trains with her Thursday during practice at Rocky Mount High School.
©Telegram photo / Abbi O’Leary

Amy Howard’s career as a goalie began as a lazy eight-year-old.

“It’s kind of the classic story of when I was eight years old and I did not want to run,” Howard said with a chuckle. ”I played soccer and I was like, ’I’ll stand back here because I’m tired.’ I just happened to be good enough at that time that they just kept me back there.”

She went on to star as a goalkeeper in Louisiana before playing four years for Auburn, where she is the program’s leader in career saves and appearances by a goalkeeper. She graduated in 2013 with a degree in elementary education and was sent to Rocky Mount through Teach for America to teach third grade at Williford Elementary.

Inspired by her college goalkeeping coach, Howard wanted to try and break into coaching with Rocky Mount High’s boys’ team in 2014. Unfortunately, the transition got in the way of her making an impact.

“I had started out last year for a couple of weeks with the boys,” said Howard, fresh off serving as a goalkeeper for one of Rocky Mount High’s practices last week, ”but I couldn’t handle it all.”

But with a year of teaching experience under her belt, Howard was ready to listen when coach Jordan Musselwhite called her before the season to help out with the Gryphons’ girls this season.

“I knew coming in that we wanted someone to work with Ty,” Musselwhite said. ”I know a little bit about being a goalie, but I didn’t have that much knowledge. I knew she was still in town so I sent her an email in November asking if she was ready and settled in.”

Howard’s primary objective with the Gryphons is to coach sophomore goalie Ty Arrington, an athletic keeper who did not possess many of the soccer skills. In just a few months of work, Arrington became a critical reason why Rocky Mount High finished in a tie for second in the Big East and will host Richlands today in the second round of the state playoffs.

The improvement in Arrington’s play can be directly attributed to Howard, who Arrington said has really helped her get a better grasp on a lot of the basics of the position.

“Amy has done a great job with me,” Arrington said. ”It helps a lot (having her around) because I get to ask her questions one-on-one and she can react to what I’m doing and tell me what I need to do better or what I need to stop doing.”

Goalkeeping was the biggest question mark entering the season for Rocky Mount High, which returned most of its scoring and defense from last year. However, Sydney Philbeck graduated, leaving a giant hole in the goal for someone to fill.

Arrington was the favorite to take over the position, but had only been playing goalie for two seasons prior to this year, and certainly was very raw when it came to her skills. But Howard said Arrington has been very receptive to her suggestions and is starting to showcase the hallmarks of a quality high school goalkeeper.

“It’s been a joy to coach her because from the beginning she’s had a great attitude and she’s willing to learn,” Howard said. ”The biggest improvement I’ve seen in her is her confidence, and that comes from her improvements in the little things. … It’s very challenging (to be a goalkeeper) and that’s why I’m so proud of her in how she’s stepped up and become more confident.”

The progress has been noticeable over the course of the season as Arrington has become more aggressive.

She is charging at shooters to cut down angles and sliding with ease to collect misguided passes into the 18-yard box. She’s even made a couple of saves she might not have made in previous years including a point-blank stop on a Newton Mills Gray’s Creek forward in Tuesday’s first-round victory. Even in practice, Arrington looks more confident in using her athleticism, leaping to tip two balls over the goal during a shooting drill at Thursday’s practice.

It is a transition Musselwhite said is credited to the simple things Howard taught her about being a goalkeeper.

“Ty’s always been pretty athletic, but she’s getting more of the fundamentals,” Musselwhite said. ”She’s coming out more on the one-on-one opportunities, she’s coming off her line, she’s sound fundamentally when she comes out in how she cuts off angles. … Last year when she got in during spot duty, she relied more on her athleticism and now she’s combining that now with more technique.”

Howard’s impact on the team however far surpasses her work with Arrington. She has a great rapport with the rest of the players, and she uses her general knowledge of the sport to help wherever she can.

Musselwhite said he sometimes turns to Howard for suggestions on a wide range of topics, and the two have proven to be a powerful duo leading the Gryphons.

“It’s been incredible,” Howard said. ”It’s a different age then what I work with at school … just being a small part of an older group of kids has been really fun to talk to them, get to know them and try to give them any small piece of advice even though I’m a goalkeeper. I just hope that their success continues because they’re a lot hard workers and very good soccer players.”

by Josh Walfish
Sports Writer for Rocky Mount Telegram

Friday, May 13, 2016