Words of wisdom passed down to myself and my fellow Frosh during our first week at St. Mike’s that I have never forgotten: “Do at least one thing to get involved on campus, and it will greatly improve your experience here at the University of Toronto.”
Fast-forward three years and that still stands as one of the best pieces of advice I have ever received. Although I’ve made a point to get involved with various activities on campus, nothing has made a greater impact than my participation on both intramural and tri-campus soccer teams.
I have been a member of the SMC Women’s Intramural soccer team since first year. Over the past three years, we’ve won multiple Intramural Championships (both indoor and outdoor) under direction of coach Marc Trepanier. This year has been another successful one for SMC women’s soccer; we won the Division 2 outdoor championship, and as we near the end of our indoor season, we hope to add a Division 1 title to that haul.
We qualified for playoffs, finishing second in our pool, and just last week we won our quarterfinal game over UTM 4–0. On Thursday, we play the grads in the semifinal. They finished first in their pool and will provide tough competition, so it should be an interesting game.
In second year, I joined the women’s tri-campus soccer program I’ve played the past two indoor seasons with the St. George Blue team. Though there are just four teams in the league it’s very competitive. In both of my years on the team I’ve had the chance to work with coach Laura Machado, a member of the Varsity Blues women’s soccer team. She’s passed down her experience and knowledge as an intercollegiate athelete to our team and everyone enjoys playing for her.
Our main obstacle this season has been scoring goals; though the team has moved the ball well, our inability to score has left us going into our final season game still fighting for a playoff position. That game is next Saturday against first-place UTM, and we need a win to guarantee a spot in the playoffs.
Through playing on both these teams, I have had the opportunity to work with a wide variety of individuals across campus. Everyone has a passion for the game that gives you common ground right away. In these final weeks of both the intramural and tri-campus seasons, I know I speak for all my teammates when I say that we are excited and ready for any and all competition coming our way.
