Jasmin Day

Patrick Laverty

Forget about filling her sister’s shoes, after a splendid freshman

season on the soccer pitch, Jasmin Day has her own reputation to live

up to.

With another solid season this year, one that has already helped

Costa Mesa High clinch its second straight Golden West League girls

soccer championship, Day is only furthering that reputation.

Following in the footsteps of older sister Sharon, the Daily Pilot

Newport-Mesa Female Athlete of the Year for 2002-03 who now stars for

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in soccer and track, Jasmin has shown an

ability to step out of the shadows and create her own niche.

“Sometimes I feel that some of my coaches think that I should be

up to her level,” Day said. “Sometimes I feel the pressure.”

But more often than not, she produces.

Day had a hand in each of the Mustangs’ three victories last week,

including the title-clinching win over Ocean View on Friday.

A breakaway goal in the ninth minute opened the scoring in a 2-0

win over Santa Ana on Jan. 26. Two days later, Day provided the only

goal, scoring on a header off a corner kick by Rachel Ronquillo, in a

1-0 win over Saddleback. Against Ocean View, Day notched an assist in

the 2-0 victory.

“She’s very athletic,” Costa Mesa Coach Dan Johnston said. “She’s

got good speed. She’s very good at beating players around the corner

and putting the ball back across the middle. She creates a lot of

good scoring opportunities in addition to her own goals.”

The three wins extended Costa Mesa’s winning streak in league to

21 games, over the course of which the Mustangs have produced 18

shutouts and outscored their opponents, 110-3. Day has been a big

part of the run, beginning with her 24 goals and 15 assists as a

freshman, through last week’s heroics, which were enough to earn her

Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week honors for the second time this year.

In November, Day earned the honor for winning the Golden West

League individual cross country championship. It was her first time

competing in the sport and her first opportunity to shine after the

graduation of her older sister.

After competing with her sister in volleyball and track, as well

as on Mesa’s CIF Southern Section Division III co-championship team

in soccer, Day decided to set out on her own course, the long and

windy cross country type.

“It was really hard,” Day said of her first experience with the

sport. “The first month we went to cross country camp. The first day,

we ran six miles. I was dying.”

But by the end of the year, she was flying by her competition. She

finished fifth in the CIF Southern Section finals and reached the

state meet, where she finished 61st.

Not only did she succeed in her first season in cross country, she

helped herself when she returned to the soccer field at Mesa.

“I’m not as tired when I finish the soccer game,” Day said. “Cross

country gave me a lot of endurance.”

It’s been needed a lot more this season as Day has emerged into a

team leader.

Ranked No. 6 in the CIF Southern Section, the Mustangs will

attempt to repeat their CIF title with a vastly different team than

last year’s squad, which, of course, included Sharon’s 29 goals and

34 assists, which earned her Division III Offensive Player of the

Year honors.

Jasmin’s job this season is not only to spearhead the offensive

effort -- she has 11 goals and seven assists -- but also convince the

more inexperienced players that the playoffs will be a whole

different ballgame compared to the Mustangs’ Golden West League

experiences.

“I think we need to start talking more and getting more passes

strung together,” Day said. “We’re playing like individuals right

now.”

The Mustangs may still need to come together more as a team to

repeat their playoff success of a year ago. But Day doesn’t have much

further to go in creating her own individual sporting identity,

regardless of what her sister accomplished.