Skyline soccer: Ashley Aberton profile

In early November, I interviewed Ashley Aberton, who was really the star player of the Skyline (Utah) girls soccer team this year. She's a talented athlete and extremely fast. Here is the article that is scheduled to appear in this year's Skyline girls soccer yearbook.

Ashley Aberton:

 

Her speed made her a great athlete

and led to goals, wins and recognition

 

By Bruce Smith

Matchup

 

            Ashley Aberton may go down in Skyline High School history as one of its best athletes. But in her mind, she’s a soccer player.

            Her career started long ago, before she was old enough to remember. Her fondest flashbacks included playing soccer with her older brother, Kyle, who is now playing football at Yale.

            “I was always super competitive with him,” she said. “Soccer was one of those sports we would play in the back yard and that’s what got me into it.”

            In the meantime, it made her a better player – and a better person. Three years ago, she teamed with her brother and her parents, Laura and Mark, to increase awareness for breast cancer and it raised about $10,000.

            Ashley didn’t get much attention there, nor did she while competing on Skyline’s track and basketball teams, where she was also one of the top players.

            Soccer, however, has been a different story.

            Even as a senior, she was only 5-foot-4, but used her amazing speed and field awareness to become one of the state’s best.

            “I’ve always been fast,” she said. “Because I’m so much smaller, I hear from everyone that I’m too small, so I have to be the most competitive. What I don’t get in height, I make up for in other aspects.”

            That fact was certainly noticed by Skyline coach Yamil Castillo, who has started her in every game since he came here.

            “She grew up to be a leader. She led by example. That was her biggest accomplishment,” Castillo said. “She’s one of the top players that I’ve

coached.”

            Aberton said she enrolled at Skyline for its academics, but became a three-time all-state player and, as a senior, led the Eagles in scoring with 22 goals. Her high game was a three-goal effort at home against Olympus this year, but Castillo said he noticed something else about her efforts.

            “Her best game was the first time we played Hillcrest. She was dominant,” he said. “She forced other teams to play us differently. What I noticed is that every time we played a team a second time, they would play her more aggressively.”

            Aberton scored 54 goals in her four-year career. She was known for her amazing speed. She

had one goal as a freshman, but made a name for herself with a four-goal effort against Cyprus her sophomore year. Her senior season was her best, but she said it was her favorite for different reasons.
            “The season went really well,” she said. “We grew so much as a team and came together so much. We definitely won a lot of our games because we were so close and depended on one another. We stuck together and faced the adversity. We were always there to pick each other up.”
            Aberton teamed with sophomore Jaslyn Masina to give the Eagles a strong 1-2 scoring punch. She said Jaslyn “was like having a twin out there” and it forced opponents to pay attention to both of them. She said there were lots of great plays she’ll remember this season.
            “Definitely beating Timpanogos was a big game because we had lost to them last year,” she said. “Beating Olympus was always memorable.”
            The season-ending loss to Bountiful in the semifinals stung – even a few weeks later – but it also opened her eyes to what they had accomplished.
            In the four years she has played, Skyline’s record has been 58-14-4 (almost 80 percent). That success has opened the door to her future. Aberton earned a scholarship to play soccer at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., and she said she considers that to be her biggest sports accomplishment.
            “It’s something I’ve dreamt of since I was little,” she said. “It’s really the heart of the city. It’s a family environment. The team was so welcoming and supportive. I just fell in love with it.”
            Skyline will miss her once she leaves, but the soccer legacy she helped create will likely continue. And – don’t forget – Gonzaga and BYU are in the same conference.