This is the Los Angeles Sol: Val Henderson

Part 17 in a series of articles on the players that make up the 2009 Los Angeles Sol.

May 24, 2009. The venue: Buck Shaw Stadium. The opponent: FC Gold Pride.

Los Angeles Sol starting goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc is on assignment for a national friendly playing for Canada against the United States.

Enter Val Henderson, a 5'7" netminder from Orinda, California via Pali Blues and the student-athlete factory known as UCLA. Her four-save performance helped LA to a 2-0 victory over the Pride.

First start. First shutout. More to come? You betcha.

Valerie Henderson was born on April 19, 1986 in the nearby town of Concord, California. For most of her life, however, Henderson was raised in Orinda.

Orinda, California is located near Oakland in Contra Costa County. A small town of 17,599, Orinda is home to many affluent professionals who commute to Oakland, San Francisco and Walnut Creek.

Orindans are patrons of the fine arts, and they show their appreciation through the California Shakespeare Theater. Known locally as "Cal Shakes," the year-round conservatory features programs for all ages. From June through October, Cal Shakes performs at the Bruns Memorial Amphitheater.

Dotted with multi-million dollar custom homes, Orinda is also home to the Miramonte High School Matadors, which has seen greats like Ken Dorsey, Drew Bennett, and Bryan Barker play in the NFL. The water polo teams are blessed to have alumni like Kirk Everist, Heather Petri and Michael Sharf take their talents to the Summer Olympics.

And the girls' soccer team has had many greats pass through its halls, with Henderson being one of them.

From 2001 through 2004, Henderson's efforts protecting the net gave her NSCAA/adidas Youth All-American honors for two season, and in 2003 she earned Diablo Foothill Athletic League defensive honors.

Outside of soccer, Henderson excelled as a softball and track/field athlete. She was first-team all-DFAL in both sports, with the pole vault being her specialty.

As the goalkeeper of the Walnut Creek Strikers, Henderson helped her youth club finish second at the state cup in 2003 while leading them to Premier League titles in 2002 and 2003.

Internationally, Henderson had some experience early. She would see time playing with the USA U19 and U17 teams while touring Germany in sporing 2003 as a member of the United States Youth Soccer Association (USYSA) All-Star Team. Henderson further sharpened her skills by taking part at the adidas ESP camp in 2002.
After she graduated from Miramonte High in 2004, Henderson's next stop was Westwood village. As a freshman, Henderson started all 25 matches, posting five shutouts in the postseason to be an NCAA All-Tournament Team selection. Against Loyola Marymount on Aug. 29, she registered six saves in a 2-1 victory.

Henderson played every minute in the six NCAA Tournament matches the Bruins played in, surrendering only one goal on a penalty kick in the final.

A Soccer Buzz and Soccer America Freshman All-America, Henderson led the Pac-10 Conference in clean sheets with 12, and also finished her season with a goals against average (GAA) of 0.67.

In her sophomore season, Henderson appeared in 25 matches while starting in all but one.

During 2005, Henderson was named to the NSCAA/adidas All America second team, the All-Pac-10 first team and the NSCAA/adidas All-Far-West Region team while earning honorable mention All-Pac 10 Academic honors.

Henderson gave up only 12 goals that year while finishing with a 20-2-2 record and a team-best 45 saves. Five of Henderson's ten shutouts were in the NCAA Tournament.
In her junior season, Henderson continued to add to her CV. She was unable to start the first four games of the season due to USA U-20 national team duty.

Nonetheless, Henderson tallied an 18-3 record with 0.72 GAA, surrendering only 15 goals in 2006. That year, she would become UCLA's career goalkeeping win leader with 56 victories.

Henderson earned second team All-Pac-10 and NSCAA/adidas All-America Scholar honors. She also earned All-Pac-10 honorable mention honors.

At the 2006 FIFA U-20 World Championships (now known as the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup), Henderson helped lead the USA to a fourth-place finish. Against France, she made nine saves in a 1-0 shutout to win Women of the Match honors.

With the U-21 team, Henderson also led the USA to a second-place finish at the 2006 Nordic Cup in Stavenger, Norway.

In Henderson's final year as a Bruin, Henderson played in all 24 games she started, while making 69 saves. She finished 2007 with a 20-2-2 record, tallying eight shutouts and a 0.60 GAA.

Henderson was named to the ESPN The Magazine All-District VIII First Team, and also earned NSCAA/adidas Scholar All-America First Team honors.

As she left Westwood to pursue a career with the Pali Blues, Henderson finished her career as UCLA's all-time leader in victories (76), shutouts (38) and goals against average (0.63), and four conference championships on the side.

In 2008, she got her revenge against Germany in the Nordic Cup, not allowing a goal in the tournament while leading the USA to victory.
Before she was selected as the 33rd overall pick by the Los Angeles Sol, Henderson earned her first piece of hardware with the Pali Blues.

The 2008 season saw her instrumental in leading Pali to the W-League Championsnhip in the club's inaugural season, culminating with a 2-1 victory over FC Indiana Lionesses.

As Henderson sits on the bench and watches LeBlanc return to duty as the starting Sol keeper, you can bet that she is itching for another chance to show what she can do.

But at the same time, she wouldn't mind one bit playing the reserve keeper. After all, shouldn't earning WPS Regular Season and WPS Championship Trophies as a backup be a more valuable alternative for Val Henderson?