DATE: Tuesday, April 15, 1997               TAG: 9704150500

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   39 lines

SARAH BUSH: 6 MONTHS IN ARGENTINA DIDN'T SLOW WESTERN BRANCH SENIOR

Sarah Bush needs to learn to use her head when playing soccer.

Not that she's not a thinker; the Western Branch senior has a zest for anticipating scoring opportunities. Last Tuesday she scored three times in the Bruins' 11-0 run over Green Run. On Friday night she added another to go with an assist, leading Western Branch to a 2-0 upset of Norfolk Collegiate.

She calls the goal against the Oaks her strangest since she started playing the game as an 8-year-old. On a cross, the ball bounced from her stomach into the net. Earlier in the week, expecting a header, she had a ball fling from her shoulder past the goalie.

``My size, I should be intimidating,'' said Bush, who stands 5-foot-10. ``That's why they want me to get a head goal. I've had them in practice, but never in a game. Eventually it will happen.''

Bush expected her skills to lag some this season as she skipped soccer last year. As part of a foreign exchange program, she lived in Argentina for six months. Eager to play, she was told it was a man's game.

``So I marched into the director's office,'' she said, ``and told him, `Well, I'm a girl and I play soccer.' ''

Bush was used to playing with boys, as she started the game at a recreational level.

``It was hard playing with boys,'' she said, ``because they never passed you the ball.''

But the director wasn't convinced. So Bush's only option was to watch as much soccer as she could on Spanish-language television.

``It was always on TV,'' she said. ``You can look where they position themselves and how they work together.''

And positioning was key to her scoring stampede last week.

``I was just at the right place,'' she said, ``at the right time.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo KEYWORDS: ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu