Korrio Player to Watch: Cousins a selfless 'Ninja' for Kickers U-16 Elite as she emerges onto national stage

By Jimmy LaRoue

Stars shine brighter when Katie Cousins is on the field, yet by mere appearances many would be hard-pressed to notice her own, game-changing presence.

She’s likely the smallest player, doesn’t score much, doesn’t call attention to herself and she’s selfless. Yet Cousins, a central midfielder, knows how to change the tempo of a game, knows how to set up her teammates and displays great touch on the ball with both feet.

This is all according to Rob Ukrop, her coach with the Richmond Kickers’ U-16 Elite girls team. He says Cousins, one of Korrio’s Players to Watch for February, has the potential to be a future game-changer with the U.S. women’s national team.

“That’s what I like to do is pass,” Cousins said. “It makes me feel like I’m in control of the game.”

Ukrop says she’s one of the few female players he’s seen that looks to possess the ball rather than spray it around the park and have people chase it.

“She has the ability to change the tempo of a game, dictates whether we go forward or whether we’re going to play back,” Ukrop said. “She thinks like a professional player in terms of her decision-making. She’s built like a professional player. She’s small, but she plays big.”

Ukrop compared her to Claudio Reyna in that she has a sense of when and whether to attack. He doesn’t believe the senior U.S. women’s national team has ever had such a player.

“In my opinion, she’s the kind of player that the women’s national team needs in their program,” Ukrop said. “She looks to pass first, then looks to take the air out of the game at times when the game’s too fast. To me, the women’s national program, so many kids that are big, strong, fast, athletic, we can get by and attack people all the time.

“But when you look at the World Cup final, we had a one-goal lead and whoever had the ball couldn’t keep the ball. We’re kind of a one-trick pony, so she, to me, is the next wave of national team player where she knows whether to pass out, what’s the situation tactically–do we need to attack? Do we need to keep the ball?”

Most of all, Ukrop said, is that she’s unflappable. Still, her competitive spirit, he said, is always on display, even in less important matches. At the most recent Disney Showcase, her Kickers team, having already qualified for the finals, was playing an inconsequential game and went down a goal. Cousins changed that, quickly.

“Literally, 10 seconds later, Katie beat three players and hit a left-footed bomb from like 25 yards in the upper 90, and didn’t smile, didn’t celebrate, just turned, dropped back, and I’m like, ‘What happened?’ She’s like, ‘I was just mad. I don’t like to be down a goal.’”

Needless to say, her Kickers team won a Disney Showcase title.

It’s that ability that’s getting her noticed.

Cousins, just a freshman in high school, has been called into the last two U-15 girls national team camps and has been invited to a third later this month. In March, she will travel with her Virginia Olympic Development Program team to Texas for the U.S. Youth Soccer ODP Championships.

When she is not making the two-hour trip each way three times per week from Lynchburg to Richmond for her Kickers or ODP practices, she’s playing point guard on her Jefferson Forest high school basketball team, conditioning for her high school soccer team, practicing her French horn, doing homework or catching a few z’s on the myriad car trips to and from practices.

That long sentence doesn’t do justice to how busy Cousins keeps herself, and the fact she’d be even busier if she could, both she and her mother Molly say.

She began playing for the Kickers as a guest player for the past two years while playing for her previous team, Central Virginia United, and said her time with the Kickers has helped to improve her game. Last May, she began playing for the Kickers’ Super-Y team and has been with the club ever since.

“She’s the first kid that just blends in so smoothly,” Ukrop said. “She’s a very talented kid, but the most important thing about her is that she wants to make the other people around her better.”

She said it was a surprise the first time she was called in last August, and it was a more intense atmosphere.

“I was really excited,” Cousins said. “I wasn’t expecting it so getting called in was a great deal of happiness. And being there was a great experience.”

She said the national team coaches are telling her to go forward more and work on her passing technique. Even still, Ukrop is effusive in praising her.

“Of course, she stands out right away when you’re watching the games,” Ukrop said. “You go, ‘Man, that kid never loses the ball.’”

“She does all the little things that make her teammates look good, and that’s what’s most important to her,” Ukrop said.

She said she likes to watch Barcelona’s Javi Hernandez, as he plays a center midfield similar style to her own.

“He’s just my all time favorite player,” Cousins said. “I’ve been told I should follow him, because he’s sort of how I am. We both play center-mid. All we do is pass the ball and make plays.”

She said making the pass that leads to a goal gives her a boost of confidence.

Cousins, perhaps known better as Ninja to her teammates and Ukrop’s two children, a seven-year old daughter and a 10-year old son, shows a similar, selfless side on occasions when she stays overnight with the Ukrop family.

“She just likes to be part of the team,” Ukrop said. “As a coach, I’m really blessed to have her. Her commitment level, her energy level, helps her be successful and helps everybody be successful, which is really nice.”

Cousins will be spending a lot of time on the road, as she prepares for her ODP and national team commitments, as well as playing with her high school team this spring and the Kickers. She’ll return from the ODP championships just in time for the Jefferson Cup later in March.

“I want to keep being on the national team as I get older, and keep making older teams, and hopefully one day just get on the roster for the World Cup and the Olympics, which would be just awesome,” Cousins said.


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