While competing for the UC Davis women’s soccer program last year, Ava Coverdale realized something was missing.
Sure, she was living her passion as a collegiate soccer player. But the California native, who had been exposed to little else besides her community and the sport she thrived in, came to the realization that she needed more.
Not long after, a conversation between her former UC Davis coach and Texas Southern coach Danesha Adams led to Coverdale’s connection with the Tigers. Coverdale arrived on campus last January, and it has been an immediate impact both ways.
“My goal for the season is to be the leading goal scorer in the SWAC. That is what I said when I came here, and I’m going to make that happen.”
Ava Coverdale
“I really transferred because I wanted community,” Coverdale said recently. “I wanted to go to an HBCU to see what that was like for me, because I grew up in a very predominantly white area, so I didn’t really get the community I needed or wanted all my life.
“Here has been a lot more comforting and supportive from people who have been through the things that I’ve been through and have the experiences that I’ve experienced, as well. It’s been very supportive, and it feels like home.”
The junior from Tracy, California, has certainly made TSU her home. In her first two SWAC games, Coverdale has scored a team-leading six goals, which included an impressive and historic four-goal output in the conference opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
She followed up that performance with a two-goal effort in a 2-1 win over rival Prairie View this past weekend to lift the Tigers to a 2-0 record in conference play.
“I think it was a very good way to say ‘I’m here’ to the SWAC,” Coverdale said of the four goals she scored in TSU’s 8-0 win against UAPB. “It’s a new conference for me, so I’m really happy with the way I entered the SWAC and the way the team entered the SWAC. An 8-0 win. You can’t be upset with that.”
It’s been in stark contrast to where she was last season, after coach Tracy Joyner, who recruited her to UC Davis, left for Oregon. Suddenly, Coverdale was under a new coach, a new system, and wondering how she fit in.
The 5-foot-10 forward played in 16 games, including 10 starts, for UC Davis last season, but there was a disconnect. It also didn’t help that the team wasn’t winning, either.
“I like to be on a winning team,” said Coverdale, who was named SWAC Offensive Player and Newcomer of the Week after her four-goal performance. “I’m not going to lie, I like to be on a winning team.
“It was really hard to deal with having a new coach and losing all the time. So, I’m really hoping, and I know that it’s going to be way better here.”
So far, after a rough non-conference run in which the Tigers won just one game, and Coverdale managed just two goals in eight games, the team has seemed to find its groove in conference play, where it’s tied with Jackson State for first place in the standings.
Adams gives a lot of credit for the early success to Coverdale because she has blended in and accepted the challenge of leading a team with 14 new players.
“She is probably the best player on our team,” Adams said. “She knows that without saying it.”
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Coverdale is, without question, an offensive-minded player who puts up shots and shots on goal with great efficiency. Currently, she is tied for first place in the SWAC in goals (8), ranks second in the SWAC in shots (32) and points (17), and third in shots on goal (16).
Adams, however, sees so much more that can be unlocked in her game as Coverdale strives for a professional soccer opportunity after college. Admas points out that while Coverdale’s four-goal effort against UAPB was outstanding, she left two goals and assists on the field.
“I knew of her, and I knew the capability that she had. I felt she needed to be in an environment where she was going to be pushed and to be loved. Someone to put their arm around her. I think she found that here.”
Dnesha Adams, TSU soccer coach
“That’s what we are working on with her. You can go affect the game in a snap of the finger, whether that is linking up, whether that’s getting shots, or taking players on,” Adams said. “But you have to consistently put yourself in position to be able to do that. Just getting her to do that more and just be more aggressive in the moments that she needs to be.
“Not only do I think she can have seven, eight, nine, or 10 goals, I think she can have assists. That’s the other piece we have to add to her game; not only can you change the game at a snap of the fingers, but you can also dictate a game. She is dynamic.”
Coverdale has thoroughly appreciated and embraced the ways Adams pushes her to become an even better version of herself.
“She’s probably been one of my best coaches that I’ve had in my college career,” Coverdale said. “She is always on me, getting me to my fitness because I haven’t been the fittest player, which is something I’ve always wanted to work on.
“She has built me up, developed me, just in these few months that I’ve been here, which has been great to see. It shows how great she is as a coach because a lot of coaches can’t do what she does.”
Leadership has also been another step that Coverdale has had to adjust to for the first time in her collegiate career. The scoring part has been natural. Being more vocal is still a work in progress.
“It takes everyone. If one person has high energy and doing everything that they need to do, then the whole team responds,” said Coverdale, who this week earned her second straight SWAC Offensive Player of the Week recognition. “Coach thinks of me as one of those leaders on the team to be able to do that for the team.”
It’s all been made easier, Coverdale said, because of the great team chemistry that exists among the Tigers.
“I love my team so much,” she said. “I think our chemistry on the field is so well, and we have worked on it so much over these past few months.
“We always come together at the end of the day, and I think that is very important in a team sport.”
