Click here to view the embedded video.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nThe BMCC women\u2019s soccer team finished its 2009 season with a 12-4 record. But by far more meaningful measures, the team had a championship season.<\/p>\n
For the first time in its history, the team received the Sportsmanship Award from the New York Metro Intercollegiate Soccer Officials Associations (NYMISOA).\u00a0 \u201cAlthough we won only one game, we never lost by more than a single goal\u2014and that was often with fewer players on the field than our opponents,\u201d says goalie Jodi Dacosta, a video arts technology major in her final semester at BMCC.<\/p>\n
While a soccer team normally fields 11 players, the BMCC squad shrank steadily over the course of the season for various reasons. \u201cAs a result, we often had only 10 players on the field and no reserves,\u201d Dacosta adds.\u00a0 \u201cThat put us at a disadvantage, but we never gave up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSoccer is my life\u201d
\nLike most of her teammates, the Jamaican-born Dacosta is, by her own account, a soccer fanatic.\u00a0 \u201cI played in high school and, to be honest, I wouldn\u2019t have gone to a college where I didn\u2019t have the opportunity to play,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I\u2019m on the field, I forget whatever worries I have and just focus on the game. Soccer is my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soccer has also had a positive impact on her academic performance.\u00a0 \u201cOur coach, Kenichi (Keni) Yatsuhashi, has told us that in order to stay on the team, we have to maintain good grades,\u201d Dacosta says.\u00a0 \u201cHe encourages us to use tutoring and other resources and emphasizes that academic performance comes first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking the language of soccer
\nTeammate Oumou Toure agrees. \u201cCoach Keni is always reminding us that soccer alone won\u2019t get us into the school of our choice. We also need a good GPA.\u201d\u00a0 According to Toure, a fourth-semester liberal arts major who plays offensive midfield, what set the team apart last season was \u201cthat we always played with heart and passion\u2014and that we were so connected, both on and off the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born and raised in the West African nation of Mali, Toure recalls the challenges she faced when she first arrived in New York, unable to make herself clearly understood in English.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoccer became my way of communicating,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019d play in games with Spanish-speaking kids and it didn\u2019t matter that we couldn\u2019t understand what each other was saying. When you\u2019re on the field, you don\u2019t need words to communicate.\u201d After graduating, Toure hopes to go on to pursue a bachelor\u2019s degree in international relations and play Division 1 soccer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m all about soccer,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I\u2019m not playing, I\u2019m dreaming about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Click here to view the embedded video. The BMCC women\u2019s soccer team finished its 2009 season with a 12-4 record. But by far more meaningful measures, the team had a championship season. For the first time in its history, the team received the Sportsmanship Award from the New York Metro Intercollegiate Soccer Officials Associations (NYMISOA).\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}