With all adjectives spent by the final whistle of St. Timothy Thunder senior girl’s improbable City soccer championship win, Cochrane reporters on the sidelines proclaimed: “She plays like a man.”
It was the simplest, albeit least politically-correct, way to describe the play of senior goalkeeper Morgan Geremia. St. Timothy girl’s soccer field boss fearlessly rushed out and challenged every shooter who dared venture near, booted the ball past the centre stripe with ease and directed the team from the top of her goal area en route to the team’s 1-0 October upset win over Bishop McNally in the Calgary Senior High School Athletic Association (CSHSAA) Div 3 final.
That leadership has earned the 17-year-old an athletic scholarship with St. Mary’s University (SMU) Huskies.
The graduating Thunder multi-sport athlete (soccer, volleyball, basketball, track and field) will be in Halifax in the fall to begin her Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) soccer career in the Atlantic University Sport conference. The university announced Geremia’s selection in a May 1 press release on its website.
“Being a Grade 12 and being in that position, I brought what I knew to everybody in the hopes we could prosper as a team,” Geremia said of her role in the Thunder’s success this season. “I was thrilled. It was awesome. It was really sweet. Nobody thought we would win.
“Winning that one was really special to me.”
So now it’s off to Halifax, which isn’t as far away for Geremia as for some.
“I actually have a lot of family out there,” she said May 24, prior to throwing the javelin at the CSHSAA City track meet at Foothills Athletic Park. “Our family is kind of situated down there. My sister goes to St. FX in Antigonish.”
So with her path already beaten to Canada’s Atlantic coast, Geremia just has to prepare to tend goal at the next level. With St. Mary’s losing its current ’keeper to graduation, Geremia expects to play in her rookie season.
“I’m going to start on the team for the first year, I think,” she said of discussions with SMU Huskies coach Fernando Lucas. “Obviously, I have to go there and perform well so that can stick.”
She understands the soccer will be different than any she’s played in to this point.
“I’m training really hard for pace and a lot of aerial play. The main difference between soccer in the big leagues, if you want to call it that, and rec kind of soccer is people can knock the ball the entire distance of the field in the air. You have teams that are always heading it. My whole life I’ve been on a team that passes quickly on the ground.”
But it’s a challenge she’s looking forward to.
“I’m super excited about that,” she surmised. “It’s a great fit for me in terms of school and in terms of soccer.”
