Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – With the Griffins women's soccer team nursing a 2-1 lead late in their Oct. 5 game against the Prince George-based UNBC Timberwolves, head coach Dean Cordeiro pointed to his captain.
Kristyn Smart jumped off the bench and went into the game for her first action since tearing her ACL 390 days earlier.
"A little nerve-wracking," she said of the experience. "I went in with 10 minutes left, but it was a one-goal differential, so it was kind of frantic on the field – not the best situation to be going in on.
"It was a similar situation in the (second game at UNBC) as well: I went in the last eight minutes and it was a one-goal lead and they were really pushing as well, so I just kind of had to bear down."
The late limited minutes were part of a plan to get her ready to contribute more for the Griffins down the stretch. Smart is coming off her first start of the season last weekend in Calgary and, although she's not back to her old form just yet, her minutes only stand to increase as MacEwan finishes off the Canada West regular season this weekend against UBC-Okanagan (Friday, 6 p.m.) and Thompson Rivers University (Sunday, 12 p.m.).
Sunday's game will mark the final regular season contest of her Canada West career.
"She's just an inspiration in everything that she does," said Cordeiro. "The work she's done, our training team and everybody else she's gone through has just done an amazing job of helping her get back. That just shows you how driven she is.
"A lot of people would be around the one-year timeline, but with Kris, her resiliency and perseverance just to do what she needed to do and make herself as fit and strong – mentally strong – as she had to to get back on the field … what a pickup for us down the stretch to have this player in house.
"Not being able to use her until now is going to give us a huge boost down the stretch and for playoffs."
Smart's recovery was quick, considering she only had surgery last November. She was, unfortunately, well-versed in the experience as she tore the ACL in her other knee a few months before the 2015 season.
"It's a lot of work – a lot of weight training and you don't get a break at all," she said. "It's just back to back. I don't recall any break I took this past year since getting surgery.
"You definitely have to be strong mentally. There's ups and downs in any injury, but especially a knee injury because it seems like your progression is very stagnant. I had a goal, so that helped."
That would be to make it back earlier than doctors thought she would.
"Once I found out I was doing surgery, they give you an average timeline of a year," she said. "My goal was to be back by October, so I could play half the season and I made that goal, which is awesome. I didn't have the highest hopes coming into September."
As Smart heads into the final regular season weekend of her Canada West career, she has plenty to reflect on, even if injuries cost her most of two seasons (2015 and 2017).
"When I first came into the program, I played a different position, which was out of my area of expertise," she recalled of her rookie campaign in 2014. "I was normally a midfielder (youth and Team Alberta). I had experience as a fullback, but I was just thrown in there with our first year in CIS. It was very nerve-racking, and we had a very established team at that point. They won nationals the year before. I think that helped establish me as a player and I could build upon that.
"I got injured in the later part of my first year (March), so I was out for all of my second year, but even just watching, you still grow as a player. I think I've had a good five years. Obviously not the best situation, but I made the best of it and I tried to make an impact on the program as best as I could."
Cordeiro points out that while Smart's play on the field is elite, her impact on the program goes beyond that.
"Kris was probably the first building block out of the '96 class that we brought in," he said. "She had so many different offers but elected to stay local and choose the maroon and white. Since then, her legacy has been set within the team.
"The amount of work and dedication that Kris has put in to get back to where she is today ... she's just an inspiration to everybody that is around her and is a huge reason that this program is where it is today based on everything she's contributed over a five-year period."
This weekend's games will be important to the Griffins as they prepare for the playoffs. They still have a small shot at landing a home post-season game, but it's slim. They would need to win both of their contests, while having UBC lose both of theirs for that to happen.
If it doesn't, the Griffins will finish third in the Pacific Division and travel to the home of Prairie No. 2, which would most likely be cross-town rival Alberta.
"We don't look that far down the road," said Cordeiro, whose team needs one more win for the most the program has had in a season since joining Canada West in 2014. "The motto for us is what we've had all year – one game at a time. We need to respond after the Calgary game.
"It's a good wakeup call for us, but now it's going to be great to see the response within our team. They weren't happy about that, they knew that we didn't play our game, so now we have our final homestand to get the train back on its tracks and start preparing for playoffs.
"But we've got two teams coming in here that are fighting for their playoff lives," he said of UBCO and TRU who are battling each other for the final post-season berth in the Pacific. "Both are fighting to get in and they both played us tough earlier. Anything but our best isn't going to be good enough."
