Former Muskie soccer player Laureen Cousineau certainly didn’t expect to make the University of Windsor Lancers women’s team in her first year–let alone be named the starting striker.
“I wasn’t sure if I would make the team or not,” remarked Cousineau. “It posed a serious challenge for me to accomplish.
“After the first day [of tryouts], I didn’t really think I would make it,” she recalled. “But during tryouts, we had two exhibition games to prove ourselves, which worked out to my advantage because I scored in the second game against a local team.”
But Cousineau’s high school soccer coach, Struchan Gilson, is not surprised at all that she made the team.
“She is the first really natural striker I have ever had,” he noted. “I am thrilled for her. That is tremendous.”
Cousineau said her main reason for trying out for the soccer team was because she wanted to have a chance to be involved in varsity athletics.
“My whole athletic career I have been involved in sports and I thought I would find a huge void without any sports in university,” she reasoned.
For Cousineau, soccer is like second nature because she’s been playing since she was 12 years old.
“I started playing soccer when I was in grade five when I moved to Winnipeg from Fort Frances,” she noted. “While living in Winnipeg, I played soccer under the Winnipeg Soccer Association for the Dakota Flames for three years.”
When she moved back to Fort Frances, she played in the youth league here for two years. Once in high school, she was the Muskies’ centre striker for five years.
She’s also played in the local Borderland women’s soccer league for the past several summers.
Cousineau admitted she had some anxiety about going away to university and trying out for the soccer team.
“The level of soccer here at the CIAU level is much more organized and everyone possess such skill and control,” she said. “The level of play is a huge step up from high school soccer in the NorWOSSA leagues
“The style and the tempo of the game moves so much quicker, and the transition aspect of the game is a great factor in the outcome,” she continued.
“With girls on our team who have won numerous Ontario Cup championships, and girls who have competed with the Ontario provincial team, coming from Fort Frances and not having that opportunity put me at a disadvantage because I have not experienced playing with such a high calibre of opposition and players,” noted Cousineau.
Which was why she was so surprised to land the starting striker job as a rookie.
“There were girls telling me how they have been on the Ontario provincial team for the last four years and have won two or three Ontario Cups, along with attending tournaments in such places as Las Vegas,” said Cousineau.
“I felt so out of my league when I had no stories to tell myself. To find myself in the starting position really was a nice surprise,” she enthused.
Cousineau also said she’s had to adapt to a different set-up on the field at Windsor, noting the Muskies played a three forward system but the Lancers go with two people as strikers.
“The new positioning makes it different because with only two forwards I am always responsible for being the center forward when the ball is on the opposite side,” she explained.
“When the ball comes to my side, I am responsible to be the winger to cross in and make the plays to the other forwards,” she continued. “With this set-up, I rely so much on the halfbacks instead of the three forwards doing it all.”
Before she left for school, Lancer coach Kevin Mulvey had sent her a pre-training schedule so she would be prepared for tryouts. By the end of the pre-training period, she was expected to be able to complete 45 minutes of constant jogging.
“When practice started, I expected a lot of running to be involved but because of the lack of time, we didn’t spend a whole lot of time on running but instead skill,” she noted.
Meanwhile, Gilson is left with the problem of filling the void left when Cousineau graduated from Fort High.
“She was the Muskies’ leading goal scorer for the last three years and our MVP a couple of times,” noted Gilson. “How do you replace a natural goal scorer?
“What I mean when I say that is when she gets the ball she scores . . . not all of the time but most of the time,” he said.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
