Wednesday, November 4, 1998
Off field, Little twinkles like star
Soccer player shines as inspiration to her team, friends,
family
By A. CinQue Carter
Daily Bruin Contributor
The ideal schoolteacher is one who wants to do what they are
doing, not someone who is doing it because there is nothing else
for them to do.
The best teachers are those that nurture, care and help shape
their students in a positive manner.
Additionally, those teachers need to be loving individuals with
patience and kind hearts, but they have to be able to discipline as
well. There has to be some kind of balance between the reprimands
and rewards.
Skylar Martine Little, junior defender on the UCLA women"s
soccer team, has those qualities.
"I want to be a third- or fourth-grade teacher," Little said. "I
want to help develop the kids, help them turn into quality
adults."
Those qualities do not only pertain to her goal of teaching, but
they also apply to her relationships with her teammates, family and
friends.
"She is like an angel over all of us," roommate Jennifer Hansen
said of Little. "She exudes kindness. In fact, she"s like a big
ball of kindness. She takes care of us."
For someone to speak so kindly of the 20-year-old Dutch native,
you would think they had grown up with her. That"s not the case
with Hansen. The two met their freshman year when they were
assigned to live together in the dormitory.
Surprisingly, they faced none of the usual roommate nightmares,
such as stealing each other"s clothes, infringing on one another"s
privacy or anything of the sort. From the beginning Little and
Hansen got along.
Hansen attributed this to Little"s personality.
"Everybody wants to be close to Sky," Hansen said. "We were
matched randomly but we automatically clicked. I always liked
her."
Hansen is just one of Little"s three roommates, the other two
being close friends from high school.
Of the four, Little is the designated "mother of the
apartment."
"We"ll all come home from being normal college students," Hansen
said, "and Skylar"s already there. She"s immediately ready to check
on our homework and make sure that we stayed out of trouble.
"And she makes us pancakes and bakes us cookies. And when
someone has a birthday, I mean any of us or anyone on the women"s
soccer team or anyone on the men"s soccer team, she bakes them a
cake. It"s just in her nature."
Hansen adds that Little is just there anytime anyone needs to
talk or to laugh or to cry. Hansen feels that Little has to be the
most selfless individual she has come across.
But throughout a lifetime of being the one that people can lean
on, Little needs a shoulder to cry on sometimes. Following a
freshman campaign in which she played in all 19 of the team"s games
despite nagging injuries, Little questioned whether or not she
wanted to go on in soccer. She had to sit back and evaluate her
situation and decide if soccer was the path she needed to continue
down.
"With my torn meniscus," Little said, "I could only play one
half (per game) until my knee would really hurt. I really went
through a lot of emotional and physical changes."
While soccer was what Little had known since she and her twin
sister Jacqui were enrolled in a local league at age five, she did
not feel that life without soccer would be devastating.
After all, she chose UCLA mainly because there are other things
to fall back on if soccer did not pan out. Little felt that being
close to her parents in Pacific Palisades and earning a quality
education at UCLA were reasons enough to move to Westwood.
Nevertheless, Little went to someone for a little support and
help deciding whether to continue playing at UCLA. And that"s where
her boyfriend Chris Sands, also a Bruin athlete, comes into
play.
During Little"s dilemma, Sands had just redshirted his freshman
season of tennis. He had worked hard the whole year but had not yet
played collegiately.
Sands explained to Little how important it was that she had
actually played throughout her first year at UCLA and noted that
she should not let her talent go to waste.
"Chris is the one that helped me get through my slump," said
Little. "He reassured me that I could come back. He made me realize
how lucky I was to have the talent that I do and I just worked hard
and made a comeback."
Fortunately for the Bruins, Little did come back. Little was an
intricate component of UCLA"s success during her sophomore season
last year. Little started all 22 games at defender and helped lead
the Bruins to a 19-3 overall, 9-0 Pac-10 record and to the third
round of the NCAA Tournament.
Little"s return to soccer at UCLA also enabled her to come
across present Bruin coach Todd Saldaña.
Saldaña is in his first year at the helm of the Bruin
program and Little feels he has already been an asset to her
development.
Prior to Saldaña"s coaching, Little did not feel that she
learned much soccer-wise since she was last with her Valley United
club team in 1996.
"With Todd and (assistant coach) Lisa (Shattuck) and (goalkeeper
coach) Dino (Vanole)," Little said, "I"m going to start learning a
lot more. Todd knows the game and knows how to teach it to us."
"I was brought up in an organized home," Little said. "With Todd
we have a curfew and body-fat testing, for instance. Todd"s strict
nature is making the team better.
"I"m really happy with my team this year, with the new players
and the new coaches. I feel we"ve made the transition well."
The last time Little had a transition that went off without a
hitch was the transition from high school to college.
After being right by Jacqui"s side for 18 years, Little went out
on her own and chose UCLA, while her sister chose to compete at
Santa Clara.
When speaking about the separation, Little says that it was
easier for her than it might have been for Jacqui because her twin
looked to Little for support.
"I"m the more responsible one," Little said.
But even though Little was able to move on, she still misses
being with her sister and friend. She was quick to point out that
she would drop studying for a midterm without blinking if Jacqui
was upset and needed to talk.
"We"re everything to each other. Jacqui and I always motivated
each other in school and in practices," Little said.
"It (is) just strange not having a best friend around, but we
talk on a daily basis and we write letters once a week."
Speaking of sisters, Little"s biggest inspiration growing up was
her older sister Courtney. She looked up to Courtney because, as
Little said, she"s "very smart, a great athlete, pretty and has
lots of friends."
Little, however, has lots of friends also. And she keeps them as
close to her as she can. She is always checking on them and always
concerned about their well-being.
"I am a generous person," Little said. "I like to give things to
other people and make other people happy instead of myself."
And Little makes her mother happy just by being herself.
"My mom is a very good friend of mine," Little said. "She"s very
supportive when it comes to my soccer and my school.
"Just the other day (after a loss) she had flowers for me and a
big hug and a kiss. It was very comforting."
Little is not about to leave out the man who made it possible
for her to play for the Valley United club team either. She simply
feels that parents offer different kinds of encouragement.
"My dad"s really supportive too, but he concentrates more on the
technical aspects of my game. And my mother"s just like there no
matter what."
While Little is feeling love from her parents, everyone around
her is feeling the love from her as well.
Teammate and friend Louise Lieberman summed Little up as a very
good leader and a positive, hard-working person. Louise feels that
Skylar is one of the main reasons that she gets so motivated to
play games.
"She"s my warm-up partner (before games), and she"s so
motivating," Lieberman said of Little. "She just loves the sport.
Soccer"s always on her mind. She"s just the epitome of a hard
worker."
Lieberman said that Little"s work ethic carries over to other
parts of her life as well. And she appreciates Little"s
friendship.
"If you"re her friend she"ll take care of you," Lieberman said.
"And she"s so positive and so responsible. At whatever she does,
she tries to be the best that she can be."
Now, what parent would not feel comfortable with their child in
the hands of Miss Little?
GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin
Junior defender Skylar Little proves her love for soccer with
her stellar performances in every game.
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