Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Asked to be the subject of a video for a Canada West women's soccer skills competition, Erin Van Dolder quickly agreed and pulled out her go-to trick.
Bouncing the ball off her foot, the MacEwan Griffins midfielder catches it on the back of her neck and precariously balances it there as she does three push-ups before recovering to her feet, juggling it with her knees and catching it again on top of her head.
Impressive stuff, to say the least.
�� the finalists are here!
— Canada West (@CanadaWest) September 14, 2022
VOTE NOW for your 2022 CW Women's ⚽️ Skills champion
Comment 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 below. Each comment counts as one vote, but only one vote per account. Voting closes in 24hrs@HuskieAthletics | @umbisons | @MacEwanGriffins | @MRUCougars | @GoTRUWolfPack pic.twitter.com/izTclbRmly
"That's one of my classic tricks – the neck catch with the push-ups," she said. "I definitely use that one a lot to impress people. I have a couple. I just enjoy juggling. It's a fun little hobby. It does apply in games, even if some people don't think it does. My touch has improved a lot.
"But it's good to see other girls are doing it, too. That's sometimes what we don't get enough growing up is that little technical ability work. So, it's really nice to see there are other girls with those qualities who are testing themselves with those skill challenges."
And, on Friday, Canada West announced that she was the winner.
�� the votes are in...
— Canada West (@CanadaWest) September 16, 2022
Your 2022 Women's Soccer Skill Champion has been selected...
�� for all our amazing athletes in this competition, and congrats to our winner �� pic.twitter.com/myLv59jxGc
To get that good at the ball handling and touches needed to play the Canada West game at a high level is purely about dedication. It's fair to say Van Dolder has that quality in spades.
"She's the first one at practice and I don't think there's a practice that goes by where she's not asking, 'hey, can I have a bag of balls. I want to stick around and work on my free kicks, work on my corner,' " explained Cordeiro. "You have to be driven. You have to want it and she's a person who wants perfection. It's difficult to attain, but she's continually working at her craft. She's getting better and better."
Fifth-year senior Van Dolder will lead the Griffins into a pair of crucial home matches this weekend as they host UNBC on Saturday (12 p.m., Clareview Field) and Calgary on Sunday (4:30 p.m., Clarke Stadium, both Canada West TV).
She enters the weekend as the Griffins' leading scorer with three goals in four games (two on penalty kicks with one standing up as a game-winner). That's just part of her game, which also includes taking any Griffins' free kicks in scoring range, most of their corners and serving as a holding midfielder tasked with tough defensive assignments.
Her game has clearly hit another level this season and that's saying something, considering Van Dolder already completed a four-year career in the NCAA at Rice University and was a major reason why the Griffins won the U SPORTS women's soccer championship last season.
Erin Van Dolder looks to make a pass during the 2021 U SPORTS national championship in Cape Breton last November (Vaughn Merchant photo).
"There are very few student-athletes that I've worked with who are as driven as her," said Cordeiro. "Her attention to detail is second to none. The leadership and experience she brings to the table is massive.
"Erin has won at every single level she's played at – (also winning a youth national championship with Internazionale in 2016) – so it doesn't surprise me. We've come to expect it. But we're grateful every day to be able to work with such a high-performance athlete."
Van Dolder, who has also played the past two seasons with the St. Albert Impact in the UWS, will be searching for a professional contract after her final university season ends later this fall.
"I'm hoping to play pro," she said. "I'm looking for a contract at Christmas or in the next transfer window in the summer.
"I've looked in Sweden and that's probably my best opportunity at Christmas because that's the beginning of their season. Europe's season starts in the summer and Christmas is their mid-season, so they don't have a ton of funds to take new players at that time."
Erin Van Dolder moves the ball against Victoria as teammate Abbey Wright looks on during a 2-0 win for the Griffins last Friday. Both were starters on MacEwan's 2021 national championship team (UVic Vikes photo).
In the meantime, Van Dolder is a key leader of a team trying to get back to U SPORTS nationals in a bid to repeat as champions. Off to a 2-2-0 start, the Griffins have some work to do to get there, but the biggest thing is they're improving every day.
"I think coming off of last season, it's hard to try to make sense in your brain that it's not going to be the same team, it's not going to be the same season," explained Van Dolder of a Griffins squad which lost five senior starters from last year.
"You have to want it every season, you have to figure out what works every season. So, trying to replicate last season is what we started out trying to do rather than using the qualities we have now and excelling at those and playing off the new relationships we've formed.
"I think we're really starting to get a handle on that to utilize the talent on the field this year, rather than trying to copy (last year) – being our own players."
And there's no doubt they took a step forward in that regard last weekend with a 2-0 win over Victoria and 2-1 loss to current U SPORTS No. 1 UBC, whom they outshot in the contest.
"I'm so happy with our UBC performance and that's hard for me to say because we didn't get any points out of it," said Cordeiro. "But I thought we deserved better. Minus our 15-minute start, we played a tremendous game. We out chanced them, we had more shots than them, we had more corners than them. And we played a very good brand of football.
"To see the growth from our opening weekend to our second weekend … has been massive," he added. "I think now the girls have seen the standard. That's what we need to bring every single day and we can't drop from that standard or level. That's been the message every day at training."
