In performing a search for the term “organized chaos” the definition that surfaces is “A complex situation or process that appears chaotic while still having enough order to achieve progress or goals.”
Robbinsville High girls soccer coach Caitlin Curran reduces that meaning to just two words – Kara Keating.
“She’s so confident and so calm, cool, collected and in the same sense it’s chaotic,” Curran said. “There will be times where she will be all over the field running left, right, everywhere, and it seems chaotic. Yet there’s a calm at the same time; you’re not worried that she’s doing it because that’s how she does it well.
“It’s organized chaos and she creates chaos for the other team because she doesn’t stop. If I had to mark her, I’d be miserable.”
The senior midfielder laughed when informed of that description. She first explained the chaos.
“I think it’s just because of how much I love the game,” Keating said. “I get so passionate about it, and always want to be where the ball is, or getting the ball to a better position to score. I think that’s what makes me stay so chaotic.”
Kara then revealed the calm, organized part of it all.
“I think that comes from playing at different positions all my life,” she said. “I kind of understand what each position is supposed to be so that helps me understand where other people are gonna be.”
The finished product gives the Ravens one of their key components coming off a 10-5-2 season. Robbinsville lost its top scorer, Sophie Berman (11 goals five assists) and Keating is the leading returning scorer after tallying eight goals and an assist.
She will be one of three center midfielders in Curran’s 4-5-1 alignment and will be counted on to step up her goal-scoring production. And while her assist total is not huge, Keating often feeds the ball to the girl who will get the assist. If it were hockey, she’d likely have more assists.
“This year she’ll probably be an attacking center midfielder again,” Curran said. “She’ll be the first to say shooting is not her strong suit. She actually put in her player profile ‘We still have to fix my shot.’ But what she lacks there she makes up for ten-fold in what she does well, which is communicating, working hard, putting herself in a position to help the team moving forward.”
Keating has worked hard at adjusting her shot, and has a pretty good idea of what needs to be done to improve it.
“When you have your planting foot down, you kick with your shooting foot and you’re supposed to end up landing back on your shooting foot,” she explained. “I think that’s something I always struggled with. I kind of shoot and keep running almost. I think my leg never really knows where to go because it looks so chaotic. So I’ve been trying to kind of focus more on my planting foot and being able to land back on my shooting foot.”
Keating began soccer at age four after watching big sister Sam play. She began playing for Robbinsville travel at age 8 and played “probably every position on the field.’” In ninth grade, she switched to the Hibernian Crush in Hamilton, where coach Debbie Carr found Keating a steady position.
“Toward the end of middle school and beginning of high school I was more of a forward, that’s where I played on all of my teams,” Keating said. “And then Deb Carr played me at center-mid for the first time and that’s where a lot of coaches started to like me and that’s where I played ever since. I’ve kind of been the strongest there and that’s where I’m best on the field.”
Carr simply stated that “Kara is a great player.”
When Keating arrived at RHS, she was put on the JV and immediately impressed coach Adrienne Capritti.
“She was Capritti’s shining star,” Curran said. “She said nothing but good things about Kara and told me what an asset it will be to have her. We got her as a sophomore and she showed sparks of greatness that would make her a staple on the field last year at center-mid.
“It would have been great for her to be able to get more goals as a sophomore. I think she was still finding her place on the field as a young varsity player. She did a lot of distributing and learning from other girls about where to be, and when. She has got a good sense of soccer. She played club soccer, she knows what she’s doing, but she was just learning at the high school level what that meant for her in the center mid position. She’s very good at picking up what other people need from her and figuring out a way to get it done.”
Keating had never played in a five-midfielder formation before coming to Robbinsville, but was not fazed by it.
“I don’t think it’s hard,” she said. “I think it kind of allows you to work more with the people and attack offensively. Having one person on top puts a lot of pressure on the outside midfielders to get up there to help her, and I think that’s where center midfield – from being able to see the field better – can see what’s up top, see if the outside infielders are up more or back more.”
Considered by Curran one of the Ravens’ hardest workers, Keating’s stamina is noteworthy. She is constantly on the move, be it from end line to end line or sideline to sideline. She has a tremendous ability to see the field and understand well in advance where she needs to make a play.
“You watch her play and you think ‘OK she might need a break,’ and before that last word of ‘break’ is out of your mouth, you’re like ‘Oh no, she’s totally fine,’” Curran said. “She catches these second winds. Right when you think that might have been everything she had, she finds this reserve tank and she fuels it well and puts herself in great position.”
Keating also shows ample toughness for someone her stature.
“She’s tiny, she gets thrown around a lot,” Curran said. “But for as many times as you see her hitting the ground, she’s popping right back up faster than she went down. She’s small but she’s strong. She’s fearless, there aren’t many kids that you watch develop as you’re coaching and there’s just a lack of fear in tackles and putting themselves in defensive position to make sure it’s the ball or the player but not both. She’s that kid.”
The Ravens will need Keating to pop up and pop in some more goals this year with Berman gone, and several other players will have to step up as well.
“Obviously we lost a lot of our starters who graduated,” Keating said. “I think we have to build that team chemistry again. I’m still very optimistic. I think we’re still gonna be a pretty good team and come out with a lot of wins.
“I think we have a lot of goal scorers. Obviously Sophie was crazy up there and running everywhere but I think me and other people offensively will step up to the plate and put goals in the back of the net.”
Curran welcomes the challenge of so many fresh faces.
“I don’t necessarily see it as a ‘What are we gonna do about it?’ type of situation,” she said. “I see it as ‘What can we do?’ It’s a clean slate, this is gonna be pretty cool to put together something and watch how it evolves over the course of the season. There’s plenty of open space for something good to happen.”
Having Keating in the middle of the field is certainly a good start to build around.
“She’s a firecracker,” Curran said. “There’s nothing bad to say about her.”
RHS girls’ soccer player Kara Keating takes the ball upfield during a game against WW-P High School South last year.,
