Delina Delgado advances the ball upfield in Lady Devil soccer action against Star Valley during the 2008 season. Delgado, a former All-State defender for EHS, will play at the NCAA Division II level this season at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colo. HERALD PHOTO/Steve Kodad

Delina Delgado could be labeled as the best female soccer player in Evanston High School history.

Delgado, a 2008 EHS graduate, was the first Class 4A All-State selection in Lady Devil soccer history. She earned second-team All-State honors as a junior, then first-team honors her senior season in the spring of 2008.

After a year of junior college soccer at Western Wyoming in Rock Springs, Delgado has decided to test her skills at a higher level. She signed a letter of intent this spring to join the Adams State College women’s soccer program.

Adams State is located in Alamosa, Colo., in the south-central part of the state. The Lady Grizzlies compete in NCAA Division II as members of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

The Colorado school has a relatively young soccer program, as ASU fielded its first women’s team in 2002. Delina hopes to be a big part of head coach Tom Cliff’s plan to build a strong program. The Lady Grizzlies won just one match last fall.

Delgado will have three years of college soccer eligibility remaining. She hopes to battle for considerable playing time as a defender in her first season at Adams State this fall.

“The program is young. Coach wants to build it,” she said. “It’s going to take a while.”



Soccer a family affair

Delina is the daughter of Delores and Gilber Delgado, Sr., of Evanston. Her younger brother, Gilber, Jr., is a member of the EHS boys’ soccer team.

Delina said she had offers from several other colleges, including ones as far away as Chicago and Arkansas. But she was hooked on ASU after a visit to the Colorado campus and meeting her potential new teammates.

“You can tell the team is, like, close together,” she said. “At Western, there were groups. It was almost all like high school again, and it sucked. We didn’t click together (at Western), and it was horrible.

“At Adams State, they all get along and they are all happy, and that’s what I saw.”

Delina is undecided on a major at ASU, possibly studying social work after considering going into nursing.

“I love helping people, and that’s always been something I’ve loved,” she said.

Delgado said she likes the small-town atmosphere in Alamosa (population about 9,000), and the same attitude on the 90-acre ASU campus.

“It’s small – it’s kind of like Western, except it’s not,” she said. “(Adams State recruiters) were talking about, your teachers will know your name.”

“I love the smaller classes, because you will learn more and you get more one-on-one time with the teachers when you need it.”

The Adams State college Web site said 57 percent of the school’s classes have 20 or fewer students.

Delgado earned second-team All Region IX honors for Western Wyoming in her first and only season at the Rock Springs school last fall. She started in 22 matches for Coach Ben Smith in the fall of 2008, the first season Western competed as a varsity women’s soccer program (Western competed at the club level in previous seasons).



Faster pace, more running in college vs. high school

Delgado was asked about the differences between competing in soccer at the high school level and college.

“The pace is faster, and a lot more running compared to high school,” Delina said. “When I got to Western, it’s like, ‘Holy Hanna, that’s a lot of running!’

“The first day of practice we did four big laps around the Rock Springs soccer fields, and then we did five small laps around a regular soccer field, and we did 17/30s – you sprint down in 17 seconds and you jog back in 30, the whole length of the soccer field, and it sucked. And then he had us do 80s, and if you didn’t do them on time he’d get mad, and we’d keep doing them.

“I learned a lot from Ben, mostly that being in shape is the most important thing you need to do.”



A long ways from home

Another big difference this year for Delina will be the long distance between college and home. Alamosa, Colo. is about a nine-hour drive from Evanston.

“When I was at Western I could come home whenever I wanted,” she said. “I was telling my dad, ‘I won’t be able to come home whenever I want, because it would be like a nine-hour drive I don’t want to make.’

“This will be crazy, because it will be the first time living on my own, by myself, with no one I really know. It’s going to be crazy. And a new state, too.”



Dad a big influence

Dad was a big influence on Delina’s soccer career. Gilber, Sr., played the sport in his native Peru, and he coached his daughter for many years on the Evanston Diablos club team.

Delina said former EHS coach Phil Orton and Ben Smith, her coach at Western, were also big influences.

“Coach Orton was always telling me to keep my head up, not to be down on myself,” she said. “Also, Ben Smith, he really helped me a lot with a lot of problems I had. He was a great coach – even though sometimes he got angry a lot, it was fun. I liked him a lot.

“My dad was probably one of my biggest influences because he’s coached me since Diablos. That was so long ago.”

Whitney Jackson was a former teammate of Delgado at EHS and at Western. Jackson planned to join Delina at Adams State, but Whitney told Delina she has changed her mind and will not play soccer at ASU, according to Delgado.



Weather like Evanston

Alamosa’s elevation is over 7,500 feet, and the climate is similar to southwest Wyoming.

“It will be just like Wyoming, one minute it’s nice and sunny, the next moment it’s snowing,” Delina said. “That’s what I called our Wyoming weather, it has ADD.

“When I went to college and soccer was in the fall and not in the spring, it was so weird. I was used to the cold. When it was warm, I was like, ‘This isn’t soccer weather.’”

Delina planned to leave for Alamosa last week to work youth and high school soccer camps at ASU. The first day of Lady Grizzly practices is Aug. 9. Adams State opens the season Aug. 27-29 hosting the four-team Grizzly Women’s Soccer Classic.





For the complete article see the 07-28-2009 issue.

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