OLYPHANT – Alicia Sodano used to dread the idea of having to stop Elana Falcone on the soccer field.
When it came time to plan the third annual Lackawanna League Soccer Media Day, however, Sodano thought Falcone was an ideal person to get the day’s events started.
Falcone served as guest speaker to an audience of two players and a head coach from each Lackawanna boys and girls team prior to a luncheon and those team representatives meeting with the media.
“She was a Scranton Prep player who I despised playing against for four years,” the Wallenpaupack girls coach said of Falcone, a Pittston native who followed up a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I playing career by turning to coaching where she currently serves as an assistant at King’s College. “I’d have to figure out how to double-team her, but yet still see that my team could remain competitive.”
Falcone played four years at Temple University, including the final two years as captain.
“She proved people wrong because there are a lot of people who don’t think you can come from this area and go and play D-I soccer,” said Sodano, who organized the event.
Falcone told players her success on the field required three Cs – courage, commitment and coaches.
After taking up soccer as a 4-year-old in Pittston, it wasn’t long before Falcone started feeling like a star, even if there was a lot of work to be done.
“Like any little soccer phenom at the time, I probably thought I was real good as I ran around and played all six positions on the field at the same time,” she said.
By the time she was in fifth and sixth grade, Falcone was showing real progress and understanding of the game as she tried out for the Olympic Development Program and higher-level travel teams.
Straying from home to test herself against the best available competition while playing for those teams, however, was not always easy.
“Choose courage over comfort by putting yourself in a seemingly uncomfortable situation,” Falcone urged aspiring players. “You are actually pushing yourself to learn, grow and ultimately succeed.
“ … No one gets better by settling.”
With family help, Falcone did not let geography limit her opportunities.
“I was traveling at least two hours for practices, playing with girls I had never met before and for coaches who were a lot different than those I had met at home,” she said. “It was definitely an eye-opening experience for me; one that definitely consisted of some tears and some ice cream cones from Mom and Dad on the rides home to try to keep me going.”
Falcone kept going, becoming a four-time Lackawanna League all-star, the leading scorer in Scranton Prep history with 84 goals and 31 assists and an all-state selection by the Pennsylvania Soccer Coaches Association.
That led to the chance to play at Temple where Falcone was the team’s third-leading scorer as a senior midfielder and the team assist leader as a sophomore.
Falcone played 70 career games for the Owls, starting 53. She scored 11 goals and assisted on seven.
