Tribune Photo By Ned Bekavac
Victoria Hinchliffe, 16, was one of the top scorers in the Ontario Women’s Soccer League’s Provincial Division this past season. She has received interest from NCAA schools and says she is shooting to play for the Guelph Gryphons after high school.
By Ned Bekavac
Guelph Tribune
Victoria Hinchliffe has a nose for the net, gumption for the goal, a mind for the mesh.
The local soccer player was one of the top scorers in the Ontario Women’s Soccer League’s Provincial Division – the top division of women’s soccer in the province – this season.
Hinchliffe is 16 years old.
Most of the rest the players in the women’s league, well, aren’t.
The league, generally, features players who are 18 or 19 on the younger end and, give or take, in their late 20s on the older end.
Hinchliffe tallied five times this season for the Guelph Royals, who went 7-5-2 in the top-tier OWSL Provincial Division. The goal total put her in the top batch of players in the league for goals scored.
Hinchliffe started playing soccer at the age of three. She’s asked if by chance she remembers anything from those early days.
“Not really,” she says. “When I was little I would always just sit on the ground and pick flowers.”
What she’s picking these days, if her stats are any indication, are all the right spots in the soccer net.
Along with her goal total in the OWSL, Hinchliffe has a league-leading 17 goals for the Guelph Royals Under-17 team in the Western Ontario Youth Soccer League. With the league heading into its final weekend, the closest player to her has nine goals.
Shayne Campbell, head coach of the Royals OWSL women’s team, says she’s quite a special local talent.
“She’s got a desire and a will to win that I haven’t seen in someone as young as her in quite some time,” says Campbell.
“Secondly, she’s got incredible speed. Her ability to get in behind defenders is very good. And she finishes very well. She’s able to finish on many chances and you put all that together and it makes her a very dangerous player. And there is a bravery about her that I think also exceeds her age – especially being on the women’s team this summer.”
Hinchliffe was a call-up for the OWSL Royals in the 2014 season, when they were playing in a lower division. She hit the pitch for the first time in the league at just 15 years old. She admits it was stressful.
“I was extremely nervous going onto the field, I didn’t want to make a mistake or do something wrong so I just went out, ran and tried to do as much as I could to help the team out,” says the striker.
Campbell recalls that debut.
“When we saw her we just couldn’t believe how fast she closes, how fast she gets on top of the ball,” he says. “She can get into spaces so fast and it was just evident in that first game. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness.’”
Hinchliffe, who won an OFSAA AA soccer gold medal with the Bishop Macdonell Celtics in 2014 – she has the medal hanging up in her room and says: “It’s one of the greatest medals I’ve ever won and probably will ever win” – has received interest from NCAA Division 1 and 2 schools.
She’s heading into Grade 12 next month and doesn’t mince words when asked where she would like to play her post-high school footy.
“I’ve had my heart set on Guelph, that’s been a dream of mine since I was little. If I could play for them that would be my life dream,” she says.
“I really just want to stay home and I really like the campus and the coaching staff seems so great and the players that I’ve played with have just been so influential . . . and playing with them, that would be a great experience.”
Says Campbell, who is a Gryphons women’s soccer assistant coach: “We are very interested in the possibility that Victoria would be a Gryphon player.”
Hinchliffe says the experience of playing in the OWSL this summer with older players has been invaluable.
“Playing with all those high level players made me step up my game and want to be just like them, so they were really influential for me,” she says. “And I just went into every game wanting to prove that I could be there and play up to these other players’ abilities because they are so great.”
In soccer, a player who can score consistently is considered a rather rare commodity.
Asked her recipe for scoring success, Hinchliffe says: “I guess it would be to just take your time and know what you’re going to do with the ball. You can’t panic, that’s one of the biggest things I find. Anyone can score, not only select people. Anyone can, if they want to . . .”
Campbell calls her a “student of the game.”
“I just think she really enjoys playing. She strikes me as someone who enjoys the process. You often say that cliche in sports — ‘not the result but the process.’ She’s someone who wants to get better, she’s out watching games, she wants to watch (Gryphons) training camp, she’s interested and wants to know and wants to see.”
Along with the soccer skills and goal-scoring prowess, Hinchliffe scores points in attitude, too.
“She’s respectful, there is absolutely zero arrogance with her. She just wants to get better, wants to be a good teammate,” says Campbell.
• • •
Victoria’s faves:
Band or Musician: Hedley
Actor: Zac Efron
Actress: Jennifer Aniston
TV Show: Survivor, anything with competition!
Movie: Too many to just pick one
Food: Buffalo chicken caesar wraps
Drink: Blue Gatorade or lemonade
Day of the week: Thursday
Pro Sports Franchise: Manchester United
Sport aside from Soccer: There’s so many to pick! But I do enjoy field hockey
Source:
http://ift.tt/1hHZpR7