The competitive fire Iliana Hocking brings to the field started at a very young age.
The Arizona midfielder grew up in a family full of athletes. Her mother, Venetta, played basketball at Cypress College in California. Her father, Denny, played 13 seasons of Major League Baseball, logging time with Minnesota, Colorado and Kansas City.
While in Minnesota, Hocking became the first Twin to father twins — Iliana and her fraternal twin sister Penelope, who is now a star forward for USC’s soccer team.
“I felt like everything was definitely a competition,” Hocking said. “Every practice, so it was kind of nice going to college and getting away from all of that.”
The upbringing helped push Hocking to become the athlete and person she is today. Hocking and the Arizona soccer team (3-9, 0-5) will host Washington (3-6-3, 1-2-2) on Friday night with hopes of securing its first conference win under coach Becca Moros.
Despite a slow start to the season, Hocking said the Wildcats are better than what their record might suggest.
“I still feel like we’re doing really good and really executing what Becca has been trying to teach us,” she said. “Of course, I don’t want to look towards next year, but I think in the future of the program, this style is going to really work and be really successful.”
Moros said Hocking’s competitive upbringing “undoubtedly” helps her in college. The two talked about it before Sunday’s loss to Oregon State in Corvallis.
“You can’t just flip a switch before game day,” she said. “If you are a competitor, you need to foster that in every environment and you need to be comfortable living that way and competing every single day.”
Moros defines a competitor as someone who lives a certain way, on and off the field.
“People who sort of live that every day and do their best and work their hardest and want to be the best that they can be in anything they do, even if it is something they are a beginner at vs. something they are very good at; that mentality is a winning mentality,” Moros said. “It is something that you need to encourage in your players and in the environment and it is something that the players have to take on board and push themselves in that way.
“Iliana has that, and it probably does come from her upbringing and the influences she has had in her family and maybe in club environments and different things that got her here and her previous environment here as well. I think it is very apparent and it something that a lot of players can emulate and look to in order to add to their game as a competitor.”
Hocking described the feeling she felt facing her sister at the collegiate level for the first time as “anticlimactic.” The Hockings have played each other four times since 2018, with Penelope’s Trojans winning all four meetings, including Oct. 3 in Tucson.
“It is like playing every other team,” Hocking said. “She is a forward and I’m a midfielder, so we don’t really see each other on the field, but it was just really nice to have my whole family there and see everyone again because first year in college, I hadn’t seen my sister. That was probably the longest time I had ever been away from her, so it was really nice to see everyone again.”
Hocking hopes to see as many people as possible at Friday’s match against the Huskies.
“We love when the community comes and supports us,” Hocking said. “We need a big crowd because I feel like that really helps us on the field and having a good environment at the games is always fun. I swear we will put on a show for you guys.”
