Women’s Soccer: Recruitment for Next Fall Season Begins

About 20 Players Attend Recruit Day to be Tested as Potential New Players

SportsSolène Jonveaux — Published January 16, 2017

The potential recruits came from schools around Canada and the United States to discover Concordia for a day and participated in tests with the team at the Stinger Dome during the afternoon.

“It’s a collection of potential players. This day is mostly organized for non-Concordia students and the idea is to give them a look into what we can offer and what’s involved,” said head coach Jorge Sanchez.

“We don’t select or cut anyone today,” said assistant coach Frédérique Labelle. “We take notes and remember who we liked, who we saw that was someone we could work with and see if they come back in August for the trials.”

The tests started with an endurance race, followed by technical exercises, and the rest of the day was dedicated to several games between the current Stingers team and the potential recruits.

“It’s a good test because these girls have never played together. We only gave a few directions about the game so it’s about seeing who can adapt to a new environment quickly and how they communicate,” said Sanchez. “They played against our team which is an experienced team, and we saw some interesting things.”

Sanchez will then discuss and deliberate with his assistants and send to each participant an evaluation of their performance during this day of tests to let them know if and where they could fit on the team.

“Some of them are pretty good actually, it’s a better batch than last year, I think it’s a good group.” — Stingers midfielder Mélisane Lafrenaye.

Players who want to apply can come to the winter trainings, and to the final trials that are set up from Aug. 14 to Aug. 17, the day of the coach’s final decision.

“I really like how the coach set this day up, it really helps to weeds out and see who is the strongest,” said Aine Kennedy, who currently plays as a striker for U-32 High School in Montpelier, Vermont.

Kennedy was one of the last girls who kept running at the end of the endurance test. She came to see how the team was working and is now potentially interested to come back in August for the trials.

“There is a big sense of team here and that is something that I respect and that I would want to come here for,” said Kennedy.

Two girls from CEGEP Édouard-Montpetit were added to the team for next fall but won’t play this winter, which gives the chance to other girls to leave their mark.

Finishing in sixth place at the end of the 2016 season, the coach wishes to find offensive and aggressive players for next fall.

“We did not score enough goals and we gave up to many last fall. I still want more offence. In the women’s team, if we can find one or two players who can add a lot of offence, it’s really going to make a difference,” said Sanchez.

“There are three girls who left last year so we need actually [a defender], a couple of midfielders and mostly strikers,” said midfielder Mélisane Lafrenaye.

Chemistry between potential recruits and current players should play a role in the decision process according to Lafrenaye, but effort will also be a valuable asset to put forward.

“Some of them are pretty good actually, it’s a better batch than last year, I think it’s a good group,” she said.

During the winter, the Stingers will play each team only once, which is a good practice prior to the fall season’s competition. Starting on Jan. 22, the team will be playing every Sunday.