Northwestern State's Savona Plays With Guyana National Soccer Team
NATCHITOCHES, La. - Once in a while, a student-athlete gets the rare opportunity of a lifetime to be a part of something special and something that will stay with them forever.
That opportunity arrived for Northwestern State freshman soccer player Ashlee Savona in 2008 when she was named to the Guyana National Soccer Team.
Savona and the Guyanese team will head to Cancun, Mexico later this week to take part in the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Should her team finish in one of the top three places, she, along with her teammates, will take part on the grandest stage of them all in 2011 at the Women's World Cup in Germany.
HOW IT ALL GOT STARTED
Soccer is not a foreign sport to Savona. The Canadian, who's able to play on the Guyana team because her mother is Guyanese, started playing the sport at the young age of three.
"My father was a long-time soccer player and played semi-pro ball for a year," said Savona. "He got me hooked on it and I've been playing ever since. It's because of him is the reason why I got a tryout for the Guyana team.
"In 2008, I was at a showcase tournament called the Orange Classic in Florida. My dad had been talking to the coach of the Guyanese national team without me knowing. He's the coach of the University of South Florida so when I went down to the showcase, he saw me play there. He introduced himself to me and after that, it was the very start of the program, so he invited me to the first tournament in Turks & Caicos."
THE BIRTH OF A NATIONAL TEAM
Guyana is new to the world competition of women's soccer. In 2008, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Women's National Development Officer, Mark Rodrigues, saw his vision of world competition become a reality.
In 2009, the team took the field for the first time at the Turks & Caicos Women's International Football Festival.
"That's where our coach brought all the girls together for the first time," said Savona.
From there, the team began preparations for the Gold Cup, beginning with the World Cup Qualifier first round in March 2010 where Guyana defeated Suriname 2-1 and St. Vincent 1-0.
In May of 2010, Guyana fell to Trinadad 3-0 in the second round of World Cup qualifying, but rebounded to defeat St. Lucia 8-0 and Barbados 3-0 to advance to round three action, where it fell to Cuba 1-0 before winning 3-0 over the Cuban team to advance to the Gold Cup.
NORTHWESTERN STATE FAMILY
Having already left for Tampa to begin training, then on to Cancun, Savona will miss her final four games of the Northwestern State season. But as hard as it may be on her to leave her teammates, her teammates are glowing with excitement for her.
"They're all real excited for me," said Savona. "They're very interested in how it's all going to go and how excited I am. I was called out at a FCA meeting the other night and the entire group prayed for me. I'm really happy for their support especially since I'm missing the last four conference games."
"Obviously you hate the fact that you're losing her for the last four games but you have to be bigger than that," said Lady Demon head coach Jimmy Mitchell. "As a coach and as a program you realize that this is an opportunity that most people don't have a chance to ever live.
"When she first told me about it, I told her that we would work through it and figure it out and that we wouldn't want to rob her of that chance to go play for a national team. That's something most soccer players would ever dream about. In soccer, that's the highest thing you can ever do. As I told her teammates, we'll be following her closely. Some of the games will be on ESPN and if hers is one that is televised, we'll get the team together and watch it.
"To have a player that's in our program to be playing at that level, you're proud for her and proud to have a chance to work with her every day. We're glad to have her and hopefully with the experience she gains there, it'll make her a better player and we'll reap the benefits of that."
LOVE FROM THE GUYANESE PEOPLE
With a team that's made up mostly of foreigners to the people of Guyana, it took a while for the Guyanese people to accept this team as their own. But once the team took to the streets and was seen in action, they became celebrities to the third world nation.
"The first time we were there (Guyana), the overseas team - the ones not born in Guyana, played against a team made up of Guyanese-born players," said Savona. "The reason the director scheduled this game was to show the country of Guyana the difference between the playing of the overseas girls compared to the girls who are Guyana-born. Our skill level and technical abilities are a lot better than the Guyanese because of the training that we've had and the opportunities that we get, whether it be in Canada or the U.S. I think after that game, the people of Guyana started to accept the overseas players a lot more and saw us getting the chance to getting to play in something like the Gold Cup."
Celebrity status soon followed.
"The second time we visited the country, the fans tripled in size to see us. Everyone knew about us. I would walk down the street and people would point me out. It's a crazy experience knowing that. You're pretty much like a celebrity to them. Little girls are coming up to you asking for autographs and wanting anything that we would give them. We visited three orphanages and gave out soccer balls, t-shirts, shoes... we all donated it to them. The girls soccer program as a whole has doubled. There's a lot more participation in it and it's great for the community and it makes me feel great knowing that I had a part in boosting the interest in the program."
The team is made up mostly of players from the United States and Canada. There are three players that are Guyanese, and Savona says they're like the Den Mothers of the team.
"Two of the players are in their 30s and one in late 20s. They teach us stuff that they've learned on the field and we do the same. It goes back and forth.
"It's great having them on the team. I remember when we first started to get to know them, they would tell us stories that kind of gave us a first hand experience of what it's like to live in a country like Guyana. They gave us a better feel for what it's like to live in a country that we're playing for and helped us a lot in representing it."
ACADEMICS
Savona, who departed Natchitoches last Thursday, could miss up to three weeks of classes, but the honor student has the full support of her professors and will have access to a tutor and internet capabilities in able to do school work when away.
"I have five classes this semester and in all five of them, my teachers are ecstatic for me," said Savona. "It makes me feel really good that they are so. I've received emails and care packages from all of them, things they've put their personal time in for making them for me. They're going to let me take the tests that I'm going to be missing when I return. I appreciate it so much the fact that they can rearrange their whole schedule just for me."
THE GOLD CUP
The Gold Cup competition gets underway on Thursday but Guyana will not have its first game until Friday when it takes on Mexico. The team will then play Canada on Oct. 31 and Trinidad and Tobago on Nov. 2.
Should Guyana finish in the top two in its pool, it'll advance to bracket play. From there, if it should finish as one of the top three teams in the tournament, it'll advance to play in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany.
"With Canada and Trinidad & Tobago on our side, I think we definitely have the toughest group," said Savona.
The other group is consists of the United States, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Haiti.
"This truly is a dream come true for me," said Savona. "And to think what can come of it, it just gives me chills thinking about it."
Fans can follow day-to-day activities from Savona with her daily blog that will be posted on www.nsudemons.com and the Daily Demon Blog.