The Brescia women’s soccer program may not currently be in season but that doesn’t mean they can’t make waves, as coach Shaun Soderling recently announced the Bearcats would be heading down under in 2023 for an opportunity not many college athletes get.
Through WorldStrides, Brescia will travel to the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia, specifically Sydney, and not only watch the tournament but will be able to train and compete as well.
“When I got the job, I knew I wanted to create some kind of tradition,” Soderling said. “When I was at the University of Evansville, their tradition is every four years they go to England and I just thought that was such a cool thing. I know other teams that do the same. One of my friends, she takes her team to the World Cup every four years. I thought that’s such a cool thing and I knew I always wanted to do it at some point.”
When it was announced the Women’s World Cup was down to Australia/New Zealand or Columbia, Soderling said he was hoping for Australia. After the official word was given, Soderling said he knew he wanted to give his team something not other schools would offer.
“Everybody has always stressed about the student experience,” he said. “We really also talk about servant leadership as well at Brescia. I knew there was a way to get the two connected.”
Soderling said he kept the news under wraps from his team for a while until the time was right.
“When everything got finalized, I sent in our 2021 class, in their group text, I just sent a gif of a Kangaroo,” he said. “It kind of blank for a little bit then all of a sudden the text message bubbles were like ‘coach, are you serious,’ ‘are you serious,’ ‘is it really happening.’ Questions after question after question. I said yeah it’s official, we’re going to go then it turned into hysteria.”
Sophomore Aubrey Jones was one that joined in on the hysteria.
“I was so shocked,” she said. “I couldn’t believe I was going to get the opportunity to go internationally to watch the Women’s World Cup. I’ve been watching it since I was a little kid and to see these players in person that I’ve looked up to for long long.”
Jones said it’s a great opportunity for her and her fellow Bearcats and it shows just because Brescia is a smaller university, doesn’t mean it can’t provide great experiences for its students.
“There’s so many pluses about coming to Brescia, coming to a smaller school,” she said. “I think this is just one way we’re able to show that we are one in the same all of these big name schools and we’re able to have really unique experiences even at such a small university.”
Pete Nowakowski, a friend of Soderling’s, is an assistant for the Australian National Blind & Deaf Soccer team, and he also helped open doors for the Bearcats.
WorldStrides will allow Soderling and company to get more training sessions in with the help of Nowakowski.
“He’s come up with this really awesome opportunity for our kids to go over and work with adaptive soccer players, learn how to work with adaptive soccer players but also get licensing working with adaptive soccer players,” Soderling said.
Jones said she is excited to work with the adaptive soccer program.
“I think it’s really important to see the different perspectives that they bring to the game,” she said. “They might learn from us but we learn from them just as much. I think that’s a huge thing with coaching in general or being a student of the game. You’re always learning and being able to learn from whoever you’re interacting with in the game is a huge benefit. I’m excited to see how that plays out.”
When asked about what she’s looking forward to the most during the trip, Jones said the entire experience.
“Obviously I’m excited about everything but I’m excited about getting to watch the games, getting to experience the Women’s World Cup. That’s really amazing,” she said. “But, I’m also really looking forward to working with the Australian National Blind Team and the adaptive soccer programs over there because I think that’s going to be a really unique experience getting to see the game from different perspectives and getting to work with all these different populations. I’m really excited about getting to work with them while we’re there.”
