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Miami Palmetto High School senior Catherine Green plays soccer. She has also worked as a soccer coach and a soccer referee.
She coached soccer teams for Pinecrest Premier Soccer, where she started her soccer career. She coached two seasons before switching to refereeing.
“I love working with those kids,” she says. “They are so much fun, and they have so much energy and they make me have more energy. I love being a recreational coach and I love refereeing the games.”
She also found coaching helped her become a better player.
“Most of my soccer ability is athleticism and speed,” she says. “But when I started coaching the kids, I found my technical ability got so much better.”
Even going through the simple drills with the children taught her.
“The more you do the simple drills, the more you learn. Watching kids develop their skills, you develop along with them,” she says.
Refereeing has been an eye-opener.
“A lot of the time, my club teams and my school teams, we give the ref a hard time,” she says. “I feel so bad for them. I still learn a lot and I have more appreciation for the refs for sure.”
She says as a ref, they are a little easier on the youngest kids unless the kids get too physical. But that’s not the case with the older kids who know more about the rules.
She switched to refereeing and training new coaches her junior year because she had loaded up on schoolwork and extra curriculars.
She played on the school soccer team and her travel club team, FC Prime.
“This year is when you can get recruited by colleges,” she says. “I’m still pursuing college soccer.”
She has talked to a couple of college coaches and the coaches have given her insight into her game and how she can work on her game.
This year she is one of the two senior captains on the Palmetto soccer team. This is a big year for her, since last year she was injured and out for three or four months.
“I did a lot of work to get back time,” she says.
Green looks forward to a good year. Last season, they got knocked out in the regional semifinals. But this year, they could match that and go further because they have a lot of terrific players.
Although soccer takes up a lot of time, Green makes time for community service. She’s vice president of Twenty Little Working Girls. Club members volunteer at a variety of organizations and fundraise so they can donate to the organizations they work with.
Green also interns at Biscayne Veterinary hospital. Her duties include filling prescriptions and assisting the vet and even cleaning up. Her goal is to become a vet.
“I applied to Ole Miss to the pre-veterinary program so I can get on the right track there,” she says. “I love helping animals.”
At Palmetto, she is the vice president of student council.
“My junior year I was a recruitment chair,” she says. “My job entailed welcoming the new freshmen. I loved my job. We do a talent show, Panther Prowl. I spent four to five weeks choreographing a freshman dance.”
She is also in the National Honor Society and the PAWS Club.
Being involved at Palmetto is important to her.
“You feel like you are getting the whole high school experience,” she says. “I told myself, I am not sitting around, I want to be a part of everything.”
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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