The Durango High School girls soccer team is getting used to having the Southwestern League Player of the Year on its roster.
And the Milliet family is used to having said player come from under its roof.
DHS sophomore Lauren Milliet earned SWL Player of the Year honors, following her sister and last year’s honoree, Brooke Milliet, who now plies her trade at Fort Lewis College.
Sister Katie Milliet, a freshman, and junior Steffie Wilson were first-team All-SWL selections, while sophomore Jessi Sigillito was a second-team choice.
Katie Milliet’s selection has a bit less in common with her older sister and more in common with another former Demon. Brooke Milliet earned her award based mostly on eye-popping statistics, but Katie Milliet’s campaign was more similar to Neely Surmeier’s performance in earning the award for DHS in 2010 – not overwhelming in terms of numbers but more so as the engine that makes the team go.
In other words, seeing is believing.
“This year for her was one of those things where she didn’t show up hugely in the stat line. I think she only had three goals and like five or six assists, and that was really it,” DHS head coach Dalon Parker said. “But she did so much. The biggest thing when we were talking about it is she did so much for the team as a spark, making things happen.”
Katie Milliet had an impressive freshman season, joining Fruita Monument’s Jordan Padgett as one of two freshmen on the first team. She scored five times this year for the Demons, and Parker said he didn’t have to work much to convince the other coaches to put her on the first team.
“For her to be a freshman and jump in and score five goals right off the bat and assist with three of them, that was just tremendous,” he said. “I didn’t really have to fight too hard for her.”
Wilson was the Demons’ cardiac kid, with four of her nine goals serving as game-winners, with several coming late in the season as Durango made a run to earn a playoff berth and a first-round home game.
“She was kind of like the girl in the background for most of the coaches until they played against us, and then they were like, ‘Oh, who’s this girl?’” Parker said.
“Everybody knows she’s naturally athletic, raw athletic ability and out of this world with speed, but to see her technically putting things in the back of the net was really good.”
Sigillito wasn’t even a member of the varsity squad at season’s commencement, but after she was called up, she provided a steadying force in the central midfield, pairing with Berkeley Davis to make the Demons’ system hum.
“I call Jessi ‘Ms. Consistent,’” Parker said. “She consistently did things right. She never really had a bad spot. ... She never had a bad moment, a bad game.”
The Demons went 10-5-1 in 2013, qualifying for the playoffs before falling in the first round to Discovery Canyon.
rowens@durangoherald.com
