Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Nikki Brodeur is coming home.
The highly-recruited local striker travelled to the University of Memphis to begin her freshman season with one of the top NCAA Div. 1 women's soccer programs last summer.
With no season due to COVID, she spent the past few months training with the prestigious Tigers team before making the decision to return home to Edmonton for the winter semester.
In January, she will join the MacEwan Griffins, reuniting with Northwest United club coach Dean Cordeiro in bolstering a women's soccer program that has designs on one day hoisting a U SPORTS championship trophy.
"First and foremost, Nikki's a tremendous person who comes from a great family," said Cordeiro. "She's going to be a great addition to our program."
Brodeur has scored in bunches in her soccer career to date, bringing an elite skill-set to the forward group. Under the tutelage of Ross Ongaro, she led Edmonton Inter to a bronze medal at the U15 girls national soccer championship, finishing as the top scorer at the tournament.
She also scored four goals in eight games for top women's club team Northwest United as a 16 year old in 2018. Then in 2019, she was an integral part of the club's success and started every game at the national championship in Newfoundland, helping Northwest United earn a silver medal.
"Nikki's an absolute game-changer," said Cordeiro. "She's a dynamic attacking player who can score goals in all different kinds of ways whether it be from distance or on the dribble. She's so good at isolating and beating defenders one on one. She can play anywhere in the front three and even as a withdrawn striker.
"What she's going to be able to add to our talent pool up front just makes me so excited – she's another player who's going to put us over the top."
Having had the opportunity to train at the University of Memphis has also sharpened her skills even further, Cordeiro explained.
"University of Memphis is a marquee program where many of the players have represented their country at some level," he said. "So the talent pool and environment she's been in for the last six months is elite. We're excited to add her."
Brodeur will join several of her Northwest United teammates on the Griffins this January as she enters MacEwan's Bachelor of Arts program.
"That's the exciting thing," said Cordeiro. "She'll get the whole winter term to meet her new teammates, get training. Obviously, everything we do now is in preparation for 2021.
"It will definitely give her a head start learning some of the systems and things that we do for when we start back in the fall."
