When standing next to him, Mike Enfield does not appear to be
intimidating.
But for his opponents, he may very well be their worst
nightmare.
Though standing only at 5-foot-7 and under 150 pounds, easily
the smallest of the starting Bruin forwards, Enfield doesn’t
let his physical stature diminish his presence on the soccer
field.
However, it wasn’t always that way for the senior
forward.
To say the least, Enfield’s offense was dormant in his
first three years as a Bruin. It wasn’t until his 54th
collegiate game that he scored his first goal.
Now, not only does Enfield lead his team in scoring, but he
leads the entire Pac-10 in goals scored.
“It’s the greatest feeling there is, especially when
you go two years without scoring a goal,” Enfield said.
“You realize how hard it is to score and how lucky you are.
You just want to scream. All this energy is built inside you and
when you score, you just want to let it out.”
Yet his success this year is not surprising when considering his
background.
Enfield came out of high school as a heralded recruit, having
already achieved great success while playing for the Under-18
National Team. But not all matches are made in heaven, and Enfield
found it difficult to find his niche on a team stocked with 16
seniors. He only played in 11 games his freshman season, making it
into the starting lineup just once. Hardly what Enfield expected
coming to Westwood.
“The first year, I really just didn’t fit into what
the team was trying to do,” Enfield said. “I
don’t know if it was that I wasn’t mature enough as a
player or if I wasn’t the right player at the time for the
coach.”
That coach was Tom Fitzgerald, who left after last season.
In his place emerged current coach Jorge Salcedo, who was as an
assistant during Fitzgerald’s regime. Since Salcedo was
hired, it became very clear that he better understood how to
utilize Enfield’s abilities.
“(During Enfield’s first three years), some of the
roles that we asked him to play did not put him in his best
light,” Salcedo said.
“I have a different role on the team than I did the first
couple of years when there were other guys that wanted the ball in
front of the goal,” Enfield added.
Those “other guys” happened to be players like 2003
Pac-10 Player of the Year Matt Taylor. With Taylor scoring 19 goals
last year alone, there was little need, and very few opportunities,
for Enfield to score any.
This year is certainly a different story.
With the defending Pac-10 champions having trouble creating
scoring opportunities, Salcedo decided to move Enfield, who had
spent the last three years as a midfielder, to the forward
position.
“My desire for him to have a more attacking role on the
team and be more of a scoring threat than he had been in the past
couple of years started in the spring,” Salcedo said.
“We needed him to be closer to the goal and get more
opportunities closer to goal.”
The move had immediate results, with Enfield scoring two goals
in a 3-1 win over Cal State Northridge in the opening weeks of the
regular season.
“No one else was scoring goals,” Enfield said.
“So if I am getting good opportunities, I am going to take
more shots than in previous years.”
And taken more shots he has. Enfield’s total of 29 shots
this season is already more than the number of shots he has taken
during any of his previous three years. Similarly, his eight goals
scored this season is more than he had scored in his past three
years combined.
Enfield attributes much of his success to the guidance of
Salcedo.
“Coach Salcedo gives a lot of players a lot of
confidence,” Enfield said. “You feel free to do what
you want to do, whereas Fitzgerald did the same thing, but you
could never be sure of what he meant.”
Much of this understanding comes from the fact that
Salcedo’s first year as an assistant coach at UCLA coincided
with Enfield’s freshman year.
“With Mike, (he needed) an understanding of what was being
asked of him and the confidence of that if it doesn’t work
out,” Salcedo said. “I have confidence in him that is
unyielding and unbending.”
“I realize when Salcedo says something, he means
it,” Enfield said.
And what Salcedo is telling Enfield is that he needs a scorer.
It’s a request Enfield loves obliging to.
Enfield hopes to keep this feeling going after college. Though
he has not yet received offers from any Major League Soccer
coaches, the season he is having is certainly helping his chances
of advancing to the professional level.
“I want to play soccer as long as I can,” Enfield
said. “Wherever it takes me. I don’t care where. I just
want to play.”
As the goals and awards keep piling up, it will only be a matter
of where, not whether, he plays professionally.
And one thing is for certain. He won’t go unnoticed.