The phrase `track and field star' fits teenager Raneika Bean down to the ground.

For the Bermudian is not only making a name for herself on the football field but also in athletics circles.

Bean, a former Berkeley Institute student, is studying at Bob Jones High School in Madison, Alabama.

She gained a reputation as a stand-out soccer player last year, her first at the school, when she netted 43 goals and had 14 assists as a junior.

However, her prowess on the track was only recognised by high school staff towards the end of last year.

Track coaches Mac Howard and Tim Mayer were paged to the school office last Autumn.

A high school coach in Chattanooga was on the phone and told them a former star pupil of his was in school, but he had heard she was running track.

"The guy was giving us times in the 100 (metres) and (marks) in the high jump and long jump,'' Howard told the local Huntsville Times newspaper.

"We said, `Wait a minute, what's her name. Oh yeah, the soccer player'. We found her the next day.'' Bean is a member of the Bermuda national womens football team and last year was named All-Metro and second team All-State for her high school.

What people did not know at the time was she also represented the Island junior track team and had set a state record in the triple jump as a sophomore while attending Chattanooga Christian.

Her record leap of 39.3 is better than the Alabama State record of 39.1 and a quarter set in 1997 by Grissom's Toyin Augustus.

So why did she put her efforts into soccer and not track? "It was during the same season and I chose to do soccer,'' Bean said. "It's my favourite. The track coaches, Coach Howard and Coach Mayer, they came to talk to me and I figured I'd try it out.'' Bean ran during the indoor season and finished third in the state meet in the high jump and in the top six in the long jump.

Right now she is training twice a week with the track team to prepare for meets as well as playing for the Lady Patriots soccer team.

Bean's soccer reputation is winning her admirers at other colleges and according to Howard she could be just as good on the track.

"If she wants to be she can,'' he said. "Her love is soccer, and she's real good, and we have a hard time right now with the school being a fairly new building.

"We don't have adequate equipment -- we don't have a long jump pit. But she practises with us twice a week with the blocks, baton passes. We're trying to get some time maybe at Alabama A&M to work on the triple jump before state.'' While Bean is re-aquiring her track form she has picked up where she left off on the soccer pitch.

She is currently leading the school's scoring charts with 11 goals from nine games -- the tally includes four in the first game of the season, a 10-0 win over East Limestone.

"She's talented,'' Bob Jones soccer coach Ken Hudson said. "You get her the ball inside the box and you're almost guaranteed it'll be on goal. She took 70 shots last year and had 43 goals.'' Jones has a long pedigree in soccer coaching and ranks Bean highly.

"She's by far the best offensive player I've ever coached and I had several All-Americans in St Louis,'' he said.

Raneika Bean: Wanted for her skills on the soccer field and the track.