Callison Division-1 bound

PALMER — Tami Callison has been a perennial Valley basketball and volleyball star for the Palmer Moose over the last four years, but her favorite sport is soccer. She signed her Division I commitment letter to play soccer at the University of Evansville, Indiana Thursday, the day before her first Moose soccer game of the 2001 season.

Coach Michael Lyon, who is from England, heard about Callison's soccer ability when she went to Arizona in the middle of basketball season to play in the President's Day Cup on the Alaska United girls' soccer team. One look at the speedster dribbling down the sidelines was all the college recruiters needed to see. They offered her a full-ride scholarship.

When Callison, who hasn't decided on a college major yet, steps onto the field and puts her game face on, opposing players know they have to either keep up or get out of the way.The speedster plays forward on the Palmer team and has the ability, through sheer speed, to capitalize on other teams' mistakes.

Callison started playing in the noncompetitive MYAC soccer league when she was 5 years old and went on to play in 12 years old and under comp soccer for Mat Valley Polaris.

"I probably wouldn't have gone into soccer if it wasn't for the Mat Valley Polaris team," she said. "I'd like to thank Ed Powell and Larry Zirkle."

Zirkle has coached Callison on the Alaska United team for the last two years while Powell got her started in competitive soccer.

Even after lettering in two other sports, the three-sport Palmer athlete knew soccer was going to be her collegiate sport.

Callison's basketball coach Lyle Busby said he received countless phone calls from college coaches wanting her to play basketball this spring, but the idea of running unencumbered on open turf drew her away from the prospect of playing in the much more confined atmosphere of basketball.

"I love to be outdoors," Callison said. "There's so much freedom. You don't have a referee [constantly] on your back."