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Sports
Women’s program on brink of returning to elite status on pitch
By Matt Lee
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First season: 1988
Best season: 19-3-1 (1996 NAIA national champions)
National titles: 2
One sport that flies under the radar here on campus, but deserves a lot of praise, is the SFU women’s soccer program. In existence since 1988, the Clanswomen have established a culture that emphasizes sportsmanship, fair play, and excellence on the hill.
The person responsible for the team’s success is coach Shelley Howieson, who has been with the team since the beginning. Now coaching in her 20th campaign, Howieson has 18 winning seasons to her resumé. Throughout her tenure, she continually manages to field a team that contends for a national championship.
“We want to be in the top 10, [and] in the final game — those are the goals we set for ourselves,” said Howieson.
In the 20 years of women’s soccer on Burnaby Mountain, the ladies have accumulated seven regional championships as well as two NAIA national championships in 1996 and 2000.
“The [1996] team went through some learning processes and came out on top in five overtimes. That [2000] team had a bunch of special athletes and found a way to win.” Howieson recalled.
There have been some outstanding players represent SFU, including 11 First Team All-Americans as well as nine Second Team All-Americans. In addition, stud players like Cathy Ross and Sara Maglio have represented Canada at the Women’s World Cup in 1995 and 1999, respectively.
“Being as competitive as [Ross] was, she brought her game everyday here at Simon Fraser and made the people around her better. There’s few players that play four years that impact in a positive way, and Sara [Maglio] was in that category.”
Aside from Ross and Maglio, there were a number of stars who shined on her squads, Howieson noted. Randee Hermus recently competed for Canada in the Beijing Olympics and Pheobe Trotman played a key role on the 2000 Clan championship team.
With their sights set on a third national title, there seems to be plenty of bite to the SFU women’s soccer team’s bark.