For Dorr, it's One Save at a Time

“My parents joke that I was ‘born a goalkeeper’ ­ — hands outstretched and ready to defend,” jokes senior Eliana Dorr.

This fall season, keeper Dorr led the Wildkat girls soccer team to their first state championship in 21 years. In doing so, she not only broke the boys and girls school record, but the state record, for both career [17] and season [10] shutouts.

Before the state match with Bigfork, her and her friends felt “really good; more nervous than excited. We’ve never lost to Bigfork at home. We play a better brand of soccer than they do, plus home field advantage with the enormous crowd. We knew we’d win. The turf was super slick though.” 

In honor of her “stellar play in goal” during the state game, Dorr was awarded the MHSA Female Athlete of the Week the week of the state championship game.   

Dorr enjoys the directing piece of goalkeeping.

 “While goalkeeping is physically demanding, it’s more mentally tough. You have to continually stay engaged, even if you don’t have a shot on you for an entire game,” she said.

You also have to stay positive. 

“You can’t let getting scored on effect your body language, for you and your teammates,” she said.   

Off the pitch, she’s honed in on academics. 

Ranked No. 1 in her class, Dorr has pursued rigorous coursework offered at Columbia Falls High School and is on track to graduate with an honors diploma, her “white coat” distinction for advanced science courses, and 18 college credits through FVCC dual-enrollment. 

As a freshman, she and a friend, Caleb Mee, started the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, an organization that has seen tremendous growth.

She’s also won multiple scholarships, including a particularly interesting “Heifer Scholarship” where she won a cow, which is now a part of her grandpa’s herd.   

How did she achieve all this?

 Like goalkeeping practice, Dorr started young.

“I took a lot of ninth grade classes in eighth grade, including creative writing, journalism, and a few others. School comes pretty easy to me, and I love to learn, so I’ve taken the hardest classes, and I work hard,” Dorr said. 

This year, her favorite class is Field Ecology–because of instructor Kelly Houle. They’ve always been good friends, she noted.

“My parents have never put much pressure on me – they always just say do your best. I strive to do everything to the best of my ability,” Dorr said.

Dorr plans to study pre-physical therapy courses next fall at university with the goal to become a Pediatric Physical Therapist. 

“I’ve wanted to go into the pediatric field since I was young, and I like caring for kids,” Dorr said.

Some of Dorr’s inspiration came from her cousin, who was born with 17 broken bones as a result of brittle bone disease. “

She was practically “made of glass.” 

But with consistent physical therapy everyday, she’s now walking with assistance at age 2.

“I want to have the same impact on people’s lives daily–develop that patient-doctor relationship,” Dorr said.  

Dorr has had her Certified Nursing Assistant license for over a year now, and works at Beehive Assisted Living, primarily as a caretaker. 

“I hear a lot of good stories, some relevant, some not so much,” she said with a smile. In a few weeks, she’ll begin working as a PT aide at Ortho Rehab.

She’s already been accepted to several universities; her top two choices right now are between Union University and Abilene Christian University, which are both down south. 

“It’s warm there!” she  exclaimed.

Penalty kicks are a crowd favorite in soccer. All the pent up energy rises and falls as the crowd goes silent, watching the ball glide through the air. 

As a goalie, “you’re not expected to save every shot, you just have to save one,” she said.

In life as on the pitch, Dorr is helping people, one shot at a time, one save at a time.