She’s a long way away, but Cochrane’s Morgan Geremia is right at home.
The 2014 St. Timothy High School grad walked out of the Cochrane school last spring into a soccer scholarship at the next level, where she’s currently freshman goalkeeper at St. Mary’s University in Halifax.
The 18-year-old left as a Calgary Senior High School Athletic Association Div. 3 City soccer champion, arriving in Halifax in August to bolster the St. Mary’s Huskies women’s soccer program. While her first season in the Atlantic University Sport conference has been challenging, she understands her 1-10-2 team will improve.
“We’re taking the time to build a strong program that will last a long time and not just be dependent on one star athlete. We’re really trying to build a well-rounded team,” Geremia says. “I think we have a good coaching staff and we’re headed in the right direction. I’m really excited to help build the program in any way I can.”
She’s catching up to the play as quickly as she can at the next level.
“The quality of play is vastly different at the university level,” she relates. “I would say a big difference is there are a lot more corners in the varsity game.”
Huskies head coach Fernando Lucas understands it takes time to grow a team. With a graduating senior and three fourth-year players who may, or may not, return to the team next year, he’s rebuilding his team with young recruits. Geremia is one of his foundation-grade building blocks.
“Overall, we do have a very young team. Morgan is part of the equation of rebuilding for sure,” Lucas states. “Morgan’s strength is her confidence. Her distribution is great. Her footwork is very, very good. The way she communicates with her back line and, over all with the whole team – her communication skills are great.”
But she is still a freshman.
“She’s come a long way since Aug. 23,” Lucas enthuses. “Morgan is a young lady, so she has room for improvement. She’s very eager and very confident.”
For her part, Geremia is working hard to excel at the next level. From team-organized study-hall sessions to match video reviews, she’s fully on board with the expectations of the Huskies women’s soccer program.
“There are a lot more off-pitch activities at the varsity level,” she relates. “This is a major attribute of university athletics. Everything is very organized. There haven’t been too many glitches in our schedule, which is really nice.”
