Eriona Shabani

Eriona Shabani feels like she stepped into a time warp.

A four-year starter at goalkeeper for Warren Central’s girls’ soccer team, Shabani helped the Lady Dragons to a continued stretch of success during her tenure between the posts.

Shabani’s 49 career shutouts stands as a school record, and she helped the Lady Dragons to a combined four-year record of 64-19-4. This past season, Warren Central was 16-4-1 and reached the District 14 tournament semifinals.

On Friday, Shabani took a step toward continuing her soccer career by signing with Columbia (Tenn.) State during a ceremony at Warren Central. Shabani knows the next jersey she’ll be wearing is for the Lady Chargers when she joins the fledging community college program located just south of Nashville next season.

“It went by so fast,” Shabani said of her Warren Central career. “When I was a freshman, every senior was telling me to enjoy it because it’s going to go by fast. I’m here now and everything just flew. It doesn’t even feel real.”

Warren Central coach Alex Tungate thinks Columbia State, which started its program in the fall and just completed its first season, has a keeper in his former star keeper.

“She just has a knack of where to be when the ball’s going to be there,” Tungate said. “I think she has a very strong intuition on where she needs to be. I also think she works really hard. She practices with the boys’ team and the girls’ team. I don’t know if there’s many girls’ keepers that do that. She wants it to (be) physical, she wants (to) get down on the ground. I think a lot of goalkeepers don’t like that so much.”

Shabani said Columbia State coach Colton Bryant, who attended Friday’s ceremony, has told her she has a shot to see action right away.

“Their starting keeper’s pretty good,” Shabani said. “It’s just a deal where we’ll split up time. If she’s better, she’ll play and if I’m better I’ll play – just depending on your skill level and what we need for that game, I guess.”