Senior captain Winzen learns from mistakes

It wasn’t always like this: Tracey Winzen smiling and
content as she talks about the coming season.

Just two years ago, the senior tri-captain wasn’t even
sure she fit in the scheme of things at UCLA.

“My freshman year was actually pretty good,” Winzen
said. “But I got hurt halfway through the season. I hurt my
knee and it absolutely killed me.”

She’d been hurt before, in high school at Mater Dei in
Santa Ana, but things had been so much easier then. She was a team
star and landed right back in the starting lineup.

But now, she looked at the center midfield and saw somebody
else. That somebody else wasn’t going anywhere either.

With her job lost and her confidence deflated, Winzen did what
any young player would do.

She got mad at coach.

“Winz and I came in here together not knowing what our
expectations were or how everything was going to unfold,”
UCLA head coach Jillian Ellis said. “When she came in here,
she had been recruited by someone else and didn’t know who
the coach was going to be.”

Something was unfolding. Winzen just didn’t expect it to
be her confidence.

“When these girls stepped in and they played better than
me I was angry because I wasn’t getting it done,”
Winzen says. “I was more mad at her than at myself, like
anybody would be.”

Yet her words go on, reflective of what kind of player ““
and person ““ she’s now become.

“It was totally all my fault,” she says. “I
look back at it now and I see it was stupid that I got upset with
her.”

For what it’s worth, both Winzen and Ellis downplay their
past differences and would much rather talk about how important one
has been to the other. At the time, though, the two had different
ideas about how the team should be run.

“Usually when freshmen come in they’re going to test
the system, and she was doing just that,” Ellis said.
“At the same time, I was testing the waters
myself.”

Winzen’s problem was it’s usually the coach who
decides which way the waters flow. And with a rash of U.S. National
Team members coming in, she thought she might be swimming
upstream.

“I thought about four girls from the national team coming
in and I was like, “˜great, where am I gonna fit
in?'” Winzen says.

And again, she’s not done.

“But now, thank God they’re here because
they’ve lifted our program up amazingly. Jill has done an
awesome job recruiting.”

Winzen is something of a team authority on the issue. As the
only one left on the team from her six-player recruiting class,
she’s seen the UCLA program go from respectable to
feared.

“When I came in I thought UCLA was good and definitely
getting better,” she said. “I knew we could win the
Pac-10, but going to the NCAA finals … I wanted it to happen but
I never expected it to happen that quickly.”

Indeed, as Winzen was getting over her down-in-the-dumps
sophomore year, she and the team were in San Jose, narrowly losing
to North Carolina in the national championship game.

The team’s prestige and recruiting prowess have grown
precipitously ever since. So has their relationship.

“We were bringing in better players than were here, and
she’s stuck with it,” Ellis said. “I applaud her
for that. It’s a great testament to her, not only because
she’s a good enough player, but because she’s stuck
with it as a person, too.”

What’s more, the midfielder who didn’t see where she
fit in is now a defender who knows she’s the mental and
physical anchor. Because the majority of entering freshmen have
more experience scoring up front, Ellis asked her senior captain to
try out the back line.

Winzen agreed. And if she should be struck by injury again?

“What I’ve learned is that I can’t let it get
to me,” she said. “I really just have to play and see
what happens.”

Ellis now judges Winzen by more than what happens when
she’s playing. She’s valued her efforts to recruit
players and write welcoming letters to freshmen, as well as her
constant, confident presence.

“There is a place here for someone who just steps on the
field and is Bruin soccer in what she represents,” Ellis
said.

“That will always have a place in my heart ““ and in
my lineup.”