Action Adam

Adam Talley has a lot of goals.

On the soccer field, and off as a criminal justice major at North Idaho College, where he is a 5-foot-9 sophomore forward.

As a two-sport athlete at East Valley High in Spokane, Talley shined on football field during the fall and in soccer during spring.

When push came to shove, he chose his true love of soccer to continue his playing career.

"Playing football was just keeping me in shape," Talley said. "Football was just kind of for fun. But soccer, it was more serious for me."

It all started at the age of 4, when his dad Curtis coached his first team.

"My dad kind of inspired me to play soccer," Talley said.

It wasn't until eighth grade when he began playing football for the Knights, where he continued to play until his senior year when he walked away from football.

Talley also believed that he'd have better success in college athletics playing soccer over football. He broke the Greater Northern League record with 25 goals as a senior.

"I thought playing football would be a lot harder on my body," Talley said. "I could play soccer longer, and that's what I chose to do."

Never one to sit around patiently, Talley thought that becoming a cop was the right career for him.

"I like to be in action," Talley said. "I want to be active. I don't want to be the guy behind the desk doing reports. I really want to be out in the field doing something."

Last summer, playing with other area college soccer players, Talley helped the Spokane Shadow claim the Evergreen Premier League title in its first season in the league.

"It was a great experience to work and play with some of those good players like Mikey Ramos and Nick Hamer," Talley said. "It was good to get a chance to play with those Division 1 kids and see how the game is played at that level."

From that experience, Talley learned a lot from Shadow coach Chad Brown.

"He definitely told me a lot of different things to get better and what I need to do to improve on that," Talley said. "I got a lot of experience from that."

Talley recorded a hat trick in the Shadow's 11-0 win against the Seattle Stars and finished with 11 goals.

He was also reunited with Coeur d'Alene High product Graison Le, who played with Talley on an Spokane Elite team as kids. On the Shadow team he played with Timmy Mueller, the former Post Falls High star, and enjoyed that experience as well.

"They're both really good players," Talley said. "It was the first time I'd played with Timmy. Tim is really big and strong, and Graison is quick and strong, which was pretty cool to watch and play with."

Le (Gonzaga) and Mueller (Oregon State) are at Division I programs, where Talley hopes to join them following graduation.

"I'm going to return to the Shadow next summer," Talley said. "Hopefully I'll move on to either Gonzaga or Seattle University."

When he's not in school or on the soccer field, Talley plays - what else - soccer video games.

"Between soccer, school and studying, I really don't have time for much else," Talley said. "I play (the Xbox video game) Fifa (Soccer 2015), and other games on the Xbox."

Playing the games, he claims, helps him see plays a lot more clear when he's on the field.

"I feel like it helps to see the movement and what I need to do on the field," Talley said.

Through Saturday's games, Talley has scored nine goals and has two assists for NIC, which is 7-0-1 in its first season back in the Northwest Athletic Conference after moving from the NJCAA.

"I don't know if our team this year is better this year, or last year," Talley said. "This year, it feels like we're really good and we'll make it a long way."

The conference championship tournament will be held in November at the Starfire Soccer Complex in Tukwila, Wash., site of the MLS Seattle Sounders training facility.

"He's a guy that knows there's a process to the game," NIC men's soccer coach Ken Thompson said. "He prepares for games and practices the right way. He eats at the right time and today (Wednesday), he's taking a test because we travel this weekend."

Thompson knew of Talley from his club soccer days, when his younger brother, Mike, coached Talley.

"I really liked him as a coach and heard that NIC was a good program," Talley said. "So I decided to come here."

"I didn't get a chance to see him play when he was younger," Ken Thompson said. "But I've heard he's as athletically dominant then as he is now."

Which makes reaching that scoring record a possibility, with a few good bounces.

"We've got 12 games left, so he needs 16 in those 12," Thompson said last week. "I'm happy to leave him in long enough during matches to try and make that happen. And I think it's a realistic with a team with as many scoring options as us. It's probably reasonable."

One thing that he's tried to avoid this year has been playing the long passes from his teammates.

"The team has made me think that I don't need to do the long balls all the time," Talley said. "We still do it, but sometimes I need to do a 'Check-2' and get the ball off my feet, turn and pass it off to one of the guys, because I'm dangerous on that play too."

And in search of a scoring record, he'll be awfully tough to stop on the soccer field.