Building a Legacy With Laura Pimienta
10/29/2015 | Soccer
by Joe Farcone
As she gets ready to board the team bus to Colorado, junior Laura Pimienta set aside some time to reflect on how the current season has been going.
“My junior season has been good,” Pimienta said. “I have started almost every game besides the ones I had to miss due to my ankle injury. I play almost every minute and it has been fun because the coaches make it fun.”
To play every minute in a soccer match is a tall task in itself and one must be in tremendous shape to run up and down the field for at least two 45-minute halves. She has played in 1,250 of the possible 1,465 minutes this season and has done a great job of focusing on nutrition and making sure her body is ready for that.
“I think playing so much keeps me in shape, and on the other hand eating right and hydrating, especially hydrating. Since I live at home my mom is always cooking for me and all that gets covered for the nutrition part.”
Pimienta, raised in Tucson, has used her home field advantage to her benefit, but playing in her hometown has more benefits than access to healthy, home-cooked meals too.
“I love playing so close to home,” Pimienta said. “I have friends here and I have friends who went out of town, but their parents still follow me too. They are always texting me that they made it to my game or to tell me I did a good job. It is really nice having that support system.”
Pimienta has always taken pride in the Wildcats, and gets to take a little extra being a part of a massive turn around in winning culture ever before and since her arrival.
“It was great witnessing it and now it is even better being a part of it,” Pimienta said. “Playing every game makes me feel like I have made an impact on the program.”
That is the lasting legacy Laura Pimienta would like to leave on this program. She is a team player, and generally cares about the program as a whole. This is what she will aim to do in her two final seasons.
“I just want to be important,” Pimienta said. “I want to keep my important role on the team and I want to keep doing better than the year prior.”
Pimienta and the rest of the 21st-ranked Wildcats look to improve their record this Friday as they will travel to Boulder, Colo. to take on the Buffs at 2:00 p.m. MST.
