After four years of playing Division I softball at Southeast Missouri State University, shortstop Renee Kertz is filling a new role as goalie for the Southeast soccer team in her fifth year of eligibility.
As a member of the softball team, Kertz started in all 214 games during her four years with the team. As a senior, she tied the school record with 132 career RBIs, and as a junior she was named second-team all-Ohio Valley Conference.
Kertz played soccer in grade school, but did not play again until her junior and senior years of high school.
"One of our goalies had to leave, the coach approached me at basketball practice and I decided to play," Kertz said.
At Notre Dame High School in St. Louis, Kertz was a member of soccer teams that placed third in the state championship her junior year and second her senior year.
"Soccer was always on the back burner," Kertz said. "I didn't play my freshman or sophomore year because it was in the same season as select softball and off-season basketball."
Lindsay Pickering, Southeast soccer assistant coach and former Southeast softball and soccer athlete, is impressed with Kertz as a goalie.
"Finding a goalkeeper, a talented one that can play Division I level is rather difficult," Pickering said. "Not only do they have to have the skill level, fitness level to be quick, they have to mentally be able to do the job. She's got all that."
Southeast soccer coach Heather Nelson was looking for another goalie to join junior goalkeeper Ashton Aubuchon on the roster. Aubuchon was named to the All-OVC team last season after leading the conference with a .78 goals against average.
"Aubuchon is a very talented goalkeeper as well, but if she got hurt there would be no one to put back there," Nelson said.
Kertz has the edge as the starting goaltender because she is always "very healthy, she is never on the injury report and is always ready to go. Renee is always getting in her reps as well as she has the personality to move on from mistakes, and the mental toughness a goalie needs in the game," Pickering said.
Nelson and Pickering attended a soccer showcase and did not find anybody that was scholarship quality. They decided to contact Kertz due to her athletic ability and because they felt she could challenge Aubuchon.
Kertz has started 13 of Southeast's 19 games this season and has had five shutouts. Kertz leads the OVC in save percentage with a .880 average, and she is second in goals against with an average of .86. She has made 81 saves this season.
"Renee is very agile and athletic, as well as has great reaction time, which is needed in the goal," Nelson said.
According to Nelson and Pickering, there was a process they went through in order to secure Kertz as a goalkeeper on their roster.
"First we contacted the softball staff to make sure they were OK with us contacting Renee to see if she wanted to join the team for her fifth year of eligibility," Nelson said. "Since her softball eligibility was up in the spring, the softball staff saw no issue with Renee playing soccer."
Kertz said she spent most of the first few weeks of practice with her arms covered and wrapped from them being battered and bruised when learning how to dive for the ball.
"The biggest change Renee needed to make was that as a shortstop when you dive for a ball you land on your stomach, whereas in the goal you must learn to dive and land on your side," Pickering said.
The Redhawks ended regular-season play on Sunday with a 1-0 win against Jacksonville State. Southeast is seeded fourth in the OVC tournament and its first round game against Belmont will be at 4 p.m. Thursday. The top six teams in OVC standings will compete in the tournament, which is hosted by UT Martin.
