OFF SEASON BUILDING TO NO. 1 RANKING

WOMEN’S SOCCER (ARTICLE)
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2009
CALIFORNIA REFLECTIONS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OFF SEASON BUILDING TO NO. 1 RANKING

LANGLEY, British Columbia – When teams are preparing for the season during preseason training they are often on the field doing two-a-days, they are in the classroom doing “chalk talks” and they are in the weight room getting stronger. The Trinity Western University women’s soccer team was doing all this, but they were also bonding together through the act of sacrifice and giving.

During their August road trip to southern California the Spartans took time away from their training to help out The Crossing in Newport Beach, Calf. The Newport Beach City council regularly contacts the local church to help assist with work projects for the underprivileged citizens in the community. So the Spartans made their sizable workforce available for whatever the city and the church felt they needed.

The team spent all of the morning of Saturday Aug 29 taking on the task of completely gutting, stripping and cleaning up the outside of an overgrown and run down residence of an elderly couple in the community. The family, who live off of a low income and are dealing with major health issues, were unable to look after their house and yard on their own. So the Spartans stepped in to lend a hand.

The evening before the Spartans went to work they were part of a talk from the pastor of The Crossing Ian Stevenson. Stevenson talked with the Spartans about what love would look like and the need for them to be great by adopting a sacrificial mindset for the year. “Ian really emphasized to the team that a key slogan that he wanted to underline for us was - It's not about me.  The outreach project was a great application of that talk the next morning,” commented TWU head coach Graham Roxburgh.

The team helped transform the family’s yard and house. They cleaned the areas around the house, did yard work, did major prep for the church's work crew to come in after and paint the house, rebuilt walls and fences and did a complete overhaul of the outside and surrounding property.

“It was an amazing experience to be able to offer help, to work together as a team of 25 people and to realize that we were helping a local church reach out and touch the lives of people in need,” said Roxburgh. “As the coach of this group of young ladies, I was so impressed with the attitudes and willingness for every player to dive in and be willing to get dirty, work hard and be available to fulfill roles and tasks that were needed at that moment and time.”

The Spartans have taken the mindset of greatness through sacrifice and seen it pay dividends through the first five weeks of Canada West play. The defending CIS champions are the lone unbeaten/untied women’s team in Canada West (4-0-0) and have been ranked No. 1 in the first five CIS national rankings.

Even if the Spartans season does not end with them on top of the podium, they will be all the more stronger in life having gone through the year with the emphasis putting others first.

Since entering the CIS in 2002 the Spartans women's soccer program has rapidly become one of the premier programs in the CIS. They have won two national championships, in 2008 and 2004, and two Canada West championships, in 2006 and 2004, and have been in the national championship three of the last five years where they have accumulated a 7-1-1 record.

About TWU:
Trinity Western University, located in Langley, B.C., is a not-for-profit Christian liberal arts university enrolling over 4,000 students this year. With a broad based, liberal arts and sciences curriculum, the University offers undergraduate degrees in 41 major areas of study ranging from business, education and computer science to biology and nursing, and 17 other graduate degrees including counselling psychology, theology and administrative leadership. For more information, visit TWU's Official Athletics site at gospartans.ca.

About Canadian Interuniversity Sport:
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Fifty-two universities, 10,000 student-athletes and 550 coaches vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. The CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, and 32 World University Championships. For further information, visit www.universitysport.ca.

About CWUAA:
"Canada West is consistently the most decorated of the four conferences in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), winning at least 10 CIS national titles every year since 1997-98. Comprised of 14 schools, from Manitoba to B.C., the CWUAA produces numerous major award winners and Academic All-Canadian student-athletes each year, with many going on to athletic success around the globe in events such as the Olympics or Universiade Games."

-TW-

Last Updated: 2009-10-02
Author: Scott Stewart