Goalkeeper: the position that can take you from hero to zero and back again in less than five seconds. It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.
And sophomore Jason Beaulieu has been doing it 10 years.
Beaulieu is the starting goalkeeper for New Mexico. He is in his second season at UNM, but he’s quickly becoming one of the most accomplished keepers in Lobo history. Last season, Beaulieu ended with a 6-4-0 record, which earned him the second most wins ever by a freshman keeper in program history.
He also recorded five shutouts, which tied him for the most shutouts, and set the new freshman GAA record with 0.80.
His resume looks good now, but Beaulieu admits his soccer career didn’t always look so bright.
“I started playing at 5 years old, like most players, just for fun,” he said. “When I was 7 or 8 I became a winger, a striker. I was pretty bad at it.”
Beaulieu laughed about his childhood experience, saying he kept playing at a “bad level” until his luck changed when he was 11 years old.
“It was the first game of the season. Our goalkeeper was not there, so our coach was like, ‘Alright, who would like to be goalkeeper for today?’” he said. “And nobody raised their hand for like 10 seconds. So then at some point I was like, ‘alright, I’ll do it.’”
Beaulieu said he had a lot of fun being keeper and, to his surprise, he was actually good at it.
Throughout the years Beaulieu has improved his game by picking up techniques from different coaches. One of these techniques is what his former coach, Youssef Dahha, calls “la niche,” which is French for “the dog house.”
When the ball is coming toward stomach level, the goalkeeper catches the ball and quickly takes it to the middle of his body to “trap” it.
Beaulieu has also learned that goalkeeping is not as much a physically active job as a mental game. The key to success is being a good observer.
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During his time at UNM, assistant coach Mike Graczyk has taught Beaulieu to read the “body shapes” of attacking players to predict where to move.
“When they hit the ball, they will hit the ball very differently if they cross, if they chip, if the slip a through ball,” Graczyk said. “Their body shape will be different.”
Because goalkeepers are not constantly in action, their practices focus on putting a high amount of effort into short periods of time.
“Every time you do something, you absolutely have to give 100 percent because you will only be doing it for 5 or 10 seconds,” Beaulieu said. “We dive 50 times every day. If you don’t want to potentially get hurt daily, you should not be a goalkeeper.”
Although the job is tough, Beaulieu said he wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“I’m not playing soccer to play easy games and just win,” he said. “I play soccer because of the excitement of big games, big competition and big wins.”
Graczyk said he’s proud of Beaulieu’s career as a Lobo so far, and that he has confidence in him, as well as the other keepers in the roster.
“At the end of the day, it’s simple: don’t get scored on,” Graczyk said.
Isabel Gonzalez is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @cisabelg.
