Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Not long after landing three top prospects from the Calgary Blizzard for next year, the MacEwan Griffins women's soccer team has gone back to the same rich well.
Head coach Dean Cordeiro announced Tuesday that 2002-born Grace Mwasalla will join the program, starting in the 2020 Canada West season.
It's another game-changing signing for the Griffins now flush with her top-end Blizzard teammates. Defender Rachel Cooper, who is in the midst of her rookie Canada West campaign, was the first and she'll be followed by midfielder Sofia DiGiacomo, forward Shanice Alfred and centre-back Abbey Wright in 2019.
Mwasalla, who can play any of the front-four positions but probably fits best as a central striker or attacking midfielder, has played with the Blizzard as an underaged player. She's that good.
"She's a super athlete," said Cordeiro. "Her athleticism is off the charts. Her ability to get around the field and her touch and explosiveness is second to none."
That helps her constantly create offensive opportunities for herself and her teammates.
"She the complete package," said Cordeiro. "She'll score and create. When she goes against back lines, she's elusive. She gets between players very well.
"Because of her style of play, she garners a lot of attention and double teams where she'll bait players to one side and be able to find her teammates as well. We just love the fact that she fits the mould of a goal-scorer and creator."
Like Alfred, Mwasalla was also on the radar for Team Canada's U17 team, attending an identification camp in March 2017 at age 14.
"This is the quality of player that we're talking about here," said Cordeiro. "She could have pretty much went anywhere in Western Canada as well as in the States. We're excited to have her be a part of the Maroon and White.
"That calibre of player – to keep her in Canada is fantastic news for us to continuing to grow our game in Canada. We're just excited about Grace's ability to be a program-changer when she steps in."
Mwasalla, who honed a lot of her agility also playing basketball in her youth, is another product of former MacEwan assistant coach Diogo Raposo.
"Diogo and I see the game the same way," said Cordeiro. "He's trained his players a certain way as do we. We attract the same type of players. Sofia, Shanice, Abbey and Grace are the four core players on his team. I think part of that is they all wanted to play together, and we've been able to offer that to them here.
"I'm just over the moon in terms of being excited for next year's incoming class and now to be able to add Grace as one our first '02s in the following class (is exciting)," he continued. "In my opinion, she's the best '02 at the position in the province. It's really putting us in a position to be successful not just for the immediate future but future years as well."
