Senior captain Winzen learns from mistakes

It wasn’t always like this: Tracey Winzen smiling and content as she talks about the coming season.

Just two years ago, the senior tri-captain wasn’t even sure she fit in the scheme of things at UCLA.

“My freshman year was actually pretty good,” Winzen said. “But I got hurt halfway through the season. I hurt my knee and it absolutely killed me.”

She’d been hurt before, in high school at Mater Dei in Santa Ana, but things had been so much easier then. She was a team star and landed right back in the starting lineup.

But now, she looked at the center midfield and saw somebody else. That somebody else wasn’t going anywhere either.

With her job lost and her confidence deflated, Winzen did what any young player would do.

She got mad at coach.

“Winz and I came in here together not knowing what our expectations were or how everything was going to unfold,” UCLA head coach Jillian Ellis said. “When she came in here, she had been recruited by someone else and didn’t know who the coach was going to be.”

Something was unfolding. Winzen just didn’t expect it to be her confidence.

“When these girls stepped in and they played better than me I was angry because I wasn’t getting it done,” Winzen says. “I was more mad at her than at myself, like anybody would be.”

Yet her words go on, reflective of what kind of player – and person – she’s now become.

“It was totally all my fault,” she says. “I look back at it now and I see it was stupid that I got upset with her.”

For what it’s worth, both Winzen and Ellis downplay their past differences and would much rather talk about how important one has been to the other. At the time, though, the two had different ideas about how the team should be run.

“Usually when freshmen come in they’re going to test the system, and she was doing just that,” Ellis said. “At the same time, I was testing the waters myself.”

Winzen’s problem was it’s usually the coach who decides which way the waters flow. And with a rash of U.S. National Team members coming in, she thought she might be swimming upstream.

“I thought about four girls from the national team coming in and I was like, ‘great, where am I gonna fit in?’” Winzen says.

And again, she’s not done.

“But now, thank God they’re here because they’ve lifted our program up amazingly. Jill has done an awesome job recruiting.”

Winzen is something of a team authority on the issue. As the only one left on the team from her six-player recruiting class, she’s seen the UCLA program go from respectable to feared.

“When I came in I thought UCLA was good and definitely getting better,” she said. “I knew we could win the Pac-10, but going to the NCAA finals ... I wanted it to happen but I never expected it to happen that quickly.”

Indeed, as Winzen was getting over her down-in-the-dumps sophomore year, she and the team were in San Jose, narrowly losing to North Carolina in the national championship game.

The team’s prestige and recruiting prowess have grown precipitously ever since. So has their relationship.

“We were bringing in better players than were here, and she’s stuck with it,” Ellis said. “I applaud her for that. It’s a great testament to her, not only because she’s a good enough player, but because she’s stuck with it as a person, too.”

What’s more, the midfielder who didn’t see where she fit in is now a defender who knows she’s the mental and physical anchor. Because the majority of entering freshmen have more experience scoring up front, Ellis asked her senior captain to try out the back line.

Winzen agreed. And if she should be struck by injury again?

“What I’ve learned is that I can’t let it get to me,” she said. “I really just have to play and see what happens.”

Ellis now judges Winzen by more than what happens when she’s playing. She’s valued her efforts to recruit players and write welcoming letters to freshmen, as well as her constant, confident presence.

“There is a place here for someone who just steps on the field and is Bruin soccer in what she represents,” Ellis said.

“That will always have a place in my heart – and in my lineup.”