A St. Albert sports star is training hard this spring despite the pandemic as she prepares to head to the United States on a soccer scholarship.
Paul Kane Grade 12 student Emma Richardson was running laps and kicking balls in Forest Park May 5 as she prepared for her debut with the Bowling Green State University Falcons women’s soccer team.
Richardson has won a full-ride NCAA Division 1 women’s soccer scholarship with the university and is headed to Ohio this fall to take pre-health and biology. She has previously played two years with the Paul Kane Blues and is a member of the Edmonton Northwest United soccer club.
A midfielder known for tricky, technical game play, Richardson said she loves the running and constant change that comes with soccer, and has known since she was 12 that she wanted to play in the U.S., which has higher calibre teams than Canada.
“I’ve been playing pretty much since I was four years old,” she said of soccer, having grown up watching her sisters play the sport.
Practise in a pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has effectively cancelled team sports such as soccer this spring for students.
“It’s kind of a punch in the gut,” Richardson said of the mass cancellations, as Northwest United was just about to go to provincials.
St. Albert youth soccer typically starts up May 1, with about 2,500 students taking to the fields in a typical year, said Alesha Weicker-Pasternak, grassroots head coach for the St. Albert Soccer Association. Instead, soccer has been postponed and many players are cancelling their registrations.
St. Albert soccer players have turned to individual training to keep their skills up during this pandemic. Richardson said she’s been lifting weights at home and kicking balls and running circuits in the fields, and would soon start a fitness program from Bowling Green U to prepare for training camp this July.
St. Albert Soccer coaches have been posting live lessons on Instagram Mondays through Thursdays in recent weeks to help players keep their ball skills up, Weicker-Pasternak said. Some teams are hosting video chats training sessions so players can see and speak with each other.
“It’s a challenge in a sense that soccer is not an individual sport,” she said of online training.
“A key aspect of the game is that pressure of someone chasing you down while you have the ball at your feet.”
The association has had players do group challenges to keep up morale, such as drafting their own fantasy soccer team and wearing their uniforms in public, Weicker-Pasternak said. One recent challenge saw players collect about 1,000 pounds of food and $500 for the St. Albert and Edmonton food banks.
Weicker-Pasternak said St. Albert Soccer would definitely have a season this year and could start as soon as the sports fields are open to the public.
“We have the time to do it. We’re just not sure when we’ll be able to get on the field.”
Richardson said the games should be even better when they do start, as everyone will have had extra training time and be pumped up to get out and play.
“Once they actually have an opportunity to play, it’s going to be 10 times better than before.”
While she hasn’t booked her flight yet, Richardson said she’s due to fly to Ohio and meet her teammates July 15, and would have to start thinking about what to pack soon. In the meantime, she has to finish high school.
She encourages other soccer fans to keep working hard during the pandemic.
“You can’t let this get in the way of your dreams and goals.”
