Danchuk chosen for U16 Ontario West ladies’s flag soccer crew

ERIN – Andrea Danchuk, a grade eight pupil from Erin Public Faculty, has been chosen for the U16 Ontario West ladies’s flag soccer crew.

“It was superb. I used to be speechless,” Danchuk informed the Advertiser. 

“I didn’t count on to be on the crew. There’s so many superb gamers that have been there.” Danchuk added making the crew is “loopy.”

Tryouts started in February  in Ottawa, Hamilton and Toronto.

“[Tryouts are] an extended course of for [the girls],” mentioned Soccer Ontario director of improvement and administration Emily Todd.

“And it’s additionally difficult for the ladies and ladies’ aspect, which is form of my focus with Soccer Ontario, as a result of we’re nonetheless within the improvement stage of these applications.”

Todd famous the problem for Soccer Ontario proper now discovering ladies considering taking part in flag soccer. 

“They may not have expertise within the sport but. And we don’t have as many applications but for girls and ladies, that’s one thing we’re engaged on,” Todd acknowledged.

Danchuk was positioned on what is known as the “Trillium Staff” for provincial tryouts as she was not a part of, and didn’t have entry to a group or membership crew in Erin. 

When Danchuk participated in provincials this June, it was the primary time all the ladies performed collectively as a crew. 

Nonetheless, Danchuk did nicely sufficient to make it to a four-hour improvement camp at York College. There, the women accomplished athletic testing and totally different drills to make the ultimate crew.

There have been a complete of 16 ladies on the closing improvement camp, and ten moved ahead.

Ontario has two U16 ladies’s flag soccer groups, an jap and western division. Every crew has ten athletes and two coaches.

Lu Cruz, head coach for the U16 Ontario West crew, mentioned Danchuk was fairly welcoming and was a pacesetter from the beginning.

“[Andrea] is simply past her years when it comes to her soccer IQ, being an amazing teammate, having that each one in mentality, and you then noticed all that resumé itself on the soccer discipline when she performed at provincials,” mentioned Cruz.

The pinnacle coach had nothing however nice issues to say concerning the up-and-coming flag soccer participant.

“She was arms down in all probability the most effective offensive participant we had taking part in that day,” he defined. 

Cruz added Danchuk is a good teammate who makes teaching straightforward. 

“She’s so coachable, she has every thing you need in an athlete. She research the sport always. However she’s additionally a pupil athlete, which I feel is tremendous necessary,” he mentioned.

Danchuk has college as a excessive precedence together with flag soccer. Cruz says he can see how studious she is, and the way she is a good pupil within the classroom and likewise an amazing good friend. 

“And also you see that come on to the soccer discipline when she’s taking part in as nicely,” he mentioned.

Danchuk’s mom, Jen Danchuk, mentioned at present  there may be not a lot alternative for development in ladies’s flag soccer, so her daughter had beforehand been taking part in on a co-ed crew.

Whereas scrolling on social media, Jen noticed the Guelph Gryphons promoting for a deal with crew. That is how she later bought involved with Todd about flag soccer, which resulted in Danchuk making the Ontario West crew.

Cruz says that girls’s flag soccer continues to be a brand new program.

“It’s a grassroots program for girls in soccer, and there’s completely no funding,” he mentioned.

It will value over $10,000 for the women to be despatched to the nationwide event, which runs July 30 to Aug. 2 in Nova Scotia, and every participant has to provide you with that cash on their very own.

“You’re taking a look at about $1,400 per participant that we’re looking for to lift cash for the nationals,” Cruz added. He says funding is a giant think about ladies’s sports activities, particularly in flag soccer.

To assist offset a few of these prices, the crew has began a GoFundMe marketing campaign. Anybody considering donating can go to gofund.me/383899a7.