The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial.
The562’s coverage of high school soccer is sponsored by Long Beach FC.
The first time you do anything is a special memory. For Long Beach Poly sophomore Kadence Bain, last weekend was full of firsts that she will never forget.
Bain is a dynamic forward on the girls’ soccer team and a burgeoning runner on the track and field team. On Friday, she scored her first goal that was the game-winner to propel the soccer team to a CIF championship game. On Saturday, she won her first ever hurdles races at the renowned Trackrabbit Invitational.
“Yeah, it was great,” Bain said. “And I know I still have so much more coming for me.”
Bain is a homegrown product who always felt destined to play multiple sports because her mother, Mia Gordon, ran track and her father, Denardo Bain, played soccer.
“It immediately clicked for me,” Bain said of being an athlete. “I love sports.”
Track and soccer obviously became the top priorities for Bain while she was running at Tincher Middle School and playing soccer with Long Beach AYSO. Instead of being concerned with the opposite dynamics of those sports, Bain embraced and enjoyed the differences.
“I liked that in track you’re mostly competing against yourself and it encourages you mentally and physically because you have to push yourself no matter what,” Bain said. “With soccer I liked the team bonding and camaraderie. If you have a connection with the group you’re going to thrive all together.”
After years of excelling at both sports, when asked if she is a track star who plays soccer, or a soccer player who runs track, Bain is sure of her answer.
“I consider myself a multi-sport athlete,” she said. “If I go to soccer I’m a soccer player. If I got to track I’m a track athlete. It’s a mindset. (Each sport) is just a different world and you lock into that one world. You don’t think about anything else that’s going on in your life. You just lock in and do your job. That came naturally to me.”
Bain knows she’s been fortunate to have reliable support from the adults in her life. She said that club soccer coaches like Steve Soler and track coaches like Crystal Irving have been accommodating and encouraging when it comes to her demanding schedule that has her practicing seven days a week. But the most important part of juggling that lifestyle has been her mother.
“She’s the best mom I could ask for,” Bain said. “She’ll drive me for hours, stay at track meets for hours… We have actually become really close because of this tight schedule. We’re together almost every day for hours.”
Her mother Mia never got the chance to play sports before high school, so she made sure to give that opportunity to Kadence and her older brother.
“I keep the kids busy because I want them to stay focused,” Mia said. “If they say they’re tired I say ‘Let’s go, we’re going.’ But when we have a day off they don’t do anything. It’s important to shut down for a day like that.”
Mia is also well aware of life lessons that sports teach and how that has changed her relationship with her daughter.
“It’s not just athletically, it’s mentally helped her be able to handle hard situations,” Mia said. “We talk about when things don’t go right and you learn from it. It’s not win or lose, it’s win or learn.”
“I’ve learned that before a meet or game (Kadence) gets in her zone and I really can’t talk to her,” Mia added. “I used to ask, ‘What’s the matter?’ But I learned to keep quiet, don’t say anything and turn on the music. I learned to not take that personally like I used to. She’s just trying to get in her zone and focused… It’s sort of like her meditation before a game or meet.”
Bain was certainly dialed in last weekend and that showed when she got the surprise start for the CIF semifinal game at Poly on Friday. She hadn’t been playing a lot during the season, but worked hard nonetheless, and the Poly coaches rewarded that. Bain made the most of it by scoring the game-winning goal.
“All of a sudden the ball came straight to my feet,” Bain said of the goal. “I just hit it. To be honest, I didn’t realize I scored until people were screaming and running at me.”
That game was at Long Beach Poly, and so was the Trackrabbit meet the next day. She has been running the 100 and 200 meter races all her life, and attacked the challenge of adding hurdles this season. She was first in the 100 and 300 hurdles on Saturday in her first official hurdles races.
“I’ve just been through a lot so I know how to get my head space right and get focused,” Bain said. “In sports when you have pressure to do well, trying to improve every day, making yourself and others around you proud, you just learn to mentally prepare yourself for that.”
It’s also not surprising that Bain wanted the challenge of competing for Poly with its storied athletic tradition.
“Poly has been my dream school since I was in elementary school because I live by Poly and I have heard all of the stories of the athletes who have been there,” she said. “I already knew that school was going to click for me. I love the support I get at this school.”
With support and her sights set high, the sky’s the limit for Bain.
