Seiji Wood
Sports Editor
Senior Tristen Spooner has logged over 3,700 minutes for ISU’s soccer team during her four years.
Spooner started her freshman year and has played in every game except for three, putting her on track to make history by cracking the Bengals top 10 in logged minutes.
“It’s an honor and I think any player would say that every minute on the field is valuable,” Spooner said. “When I’m on the field and however many minutes I’m on the field, I know that I’m doing my job…I love playing. If I could play 90 minutes every game, I would.”
Spooner’s time on the field at ISU is largely due to her hard work and dedication she put in prior to arriving at ISU. She started playing soccer when she was four in Albuquerque and hasn’t stopped since. Spooner got scouted by ISU in California while she was there for the Surf Cup Tournament. She was then invited to the Bengals’ summer camp where she was quickly impressed with what ISU had to offer.
“I came out for summer camp and loved it immediately,” Spooner said. “I still remember my first day. I was going into my junior year of high school. I just felt like I was at home here. The girls were really nice, I related to the staff really well and it just felt like a place I could see myself coming too.”
She kept her recruiting process going until it came down to two schools, one of which was ISU.
“I thought about where I’d be the happiest, so I decided to come to Idaho State,” Spooner said.
She says that despite being a senior, she plans to live in the moment.
“I’m stoked that it’s my senior year,” Spooner said. “It went in a blink of an eye. You almost can’t believe that it’s your senior year…I know that I’ll probably feel it on the last game or the last day, but for right now, I don’t like to think about it.”
Despite her record-setting playing time, she has still found ways to stay motivated.
“I feel like every year you just find different motivations,” Spooner said. “I was extremely motivated my freshman year. I felt like an underdog and wanted to prove myself.
She said during her sophomore year, she wanted to help the team be better and coming into her junior year, she knew she wanted to be a leader on the team.
“Obviously, coming around the corner to my senior year, I’ve had all the motivation in the world to just win and do good,” she said. “It’s my last shot at it.”
Through the 3,700-plus minutes, Spooner has a lot of favorite moments.
“My favorite moment still to this day is probably when I scored my first collegiate goal against Boise State,” Spooner said. “It was my sophomore year and it was just funny because my teammates were like, ‘Spooner lets cornrow your hair,’ and I was like, ‘Okay.’ So, they cornrow my hair all in the back…and then sure enough, I played pretty well and scored my first collegiate goal.”
Spooner’s teammates have been asking her to bring the cornrow back, but she’s not sure if she’s willing to.
She says that’s what she wants to remember the most.
“You forget the scores of the games, especially the older that you get,” Spooner said. “But the funny times with your teammates, and the moments on and off the field with them, they become like your family. I think that’s what I’ll take away the most.”
