Even though the school year is over, soccer season is just kicking off.
This summer, seven Wilfrid Laurier University women’s soccer players are playing for Kitchener-Waterloo United Football Club.
The roster includes 21 high-caliber varsity athletes who have teamed up to play professionally to prepare for the 2014 season at school.
For Emily Brown, forward on the Laurier soccer team, playing with the girls over the summer is essential in building team chemistry.
According to Brown, three players on the Laurier team that are playing on K-W United FC were unable to play during the regular season.
“Cassandra [Mensah] was injured, Nicole Lyon was injured, and Maxine [Murchie] was a transfer student so she was ineligible to play,” Brown explained.
“It’s huge to be able to play with these girls throughout the summer — to get to know them as soccer players on the field. I think that it makes things a lot easier knowing the other players, so that the chemistry is so much stronger,” she continued.
Midfielder Suzanne Boroumand and midfielder Julie Karn, who are joining Laurier this September, round out the Laurier women on the roster.
Both girls had a variety of influences that helped them decide to play for K-W United. The biggest of which was that the head coach of Laurier’s women’s soccer team, Barry MacLean, is the president of the club.
Brown, who is returning to the club this year, is excited to work with Stuart Neely, K-W United’s new head coach. Defender Kelsey Tikka echoed her excitement.
“It’s good for us to be playing together so we’re a lot more cohesive,” said Tikka.
Going forward, both girls look to take what they were able to learn over the summer and apply it to their season at Laurier.
Being able to play at such a high level throughout the summer has both girls confident that it will transfer over to the regular season and ultimately help them play better when school resumes.
“We’re going to be able to take what we learned throughout the summer from each other and our new coach from the KW league and be able to translate that to the Laurier,” Tikka said.