A Belmont secondary soccer star is heading south next year to play on scholarship for one of the top teams in the U.S.
Lindsay Hargreaves, a 16-year-old centre back, has accepted an offer from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to play for their NCAA team while she receives an education.
“(I’m) pretty excited. It still hasn’t really set in yet,” she said. “It will be an honour to play there.”
Hargreaves, in Grade 11, is excited to start at the school in 2015 and is equally excited to have been accepted early. The deal removes the pressure of finding a place to play after graduation and gives her the freedom to enjoy her final year of high school. And train.
“I’m the kind of person who likes to know where I’m going, so it’s pretty nice to visualize it for the next year. Getting a scholarship doesn’t mean you stop working, it means you work even harder.”
A recent trip down to the campus is helping her visualize. The facilities are top-notch and people in Lincoln are big supporters of the team. “It’s a pretty cool atmosphere,” she said.
The Nebraska Huskers are known for having a strong women’s soccer team that consistently finishes in the Top 10 nationally. While there, Hargreaves will be studying education toward her long-term goal of teaching elementary school.
A lifetime of working with great coaches has helped Hargreaves to achieve her goal, she said. She’s played youth soccer in the Juan de Fuca Soccer Association, competed in the provincial High Performance League and currently suits up for Belmont and the Highlanders FC women’s team.
“All my coaches have really pushed and my teammates have pushed me,” she said. “And I’ve always had the drive to want to (play college soccer), it’s always been my dream.”
Belmont soccer academy director Troy Harris said Nebraska is going to be happy with the player they’re getting.
“Lindsay’s a very patient player who reads the game well,” he said.
“She plays a real simple game and plays it well. They’re getting an incredible academic student and a great athlete.”
Having achieved this goal, Hargreaves now looks to her next one: playing for Canada. Regardless of where she ends up, she said she’ll be happy as long as she’s involved in soccer in some way.
“Wherever it takes me, I’m happy with that, whether it’s coaching later or still playing,” she said.
kwells@goldstreamgazette.com
