Niagara Sports Magazine
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After Sabrina D’Angelo’s freshman season playing goalkeeper in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, it’s probably safe to say that the 18-year-old Welland native is displaying all the characteristics of a rising star.
Not only did D’Angelo help backstop the University of South Carolina Gamecocks to a 15-6 regular season record. As the starting keeper she posted a 13-4 win-loss record. She also earned four prestigious honours from the Southeastern Conference for her freshman performance on the pitch.
“I am humbled for the awards that I was given in the SEC,” D’Angelo said, after she was recently named SEC Freshman of the Year, SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year, SEC All-Freshmen Team, and she was one of only two freshmen in the conference to receive All-SEC First Team Honours. “The coaches of the other teams put in their votes, and it is an honour that they felt I did so well in the season.
“The season is extremely hard with all the traveling and training and games, it can get very exhausting and tough, but I love it. Our conference is very difficult, and every team is good which requires you to come to play every game.”
By no means is D’Angelo some overnight success story. At the age of nine, she played her first season in the all-star ranks for the Welland Soccer Club under the coaching guidance of, current Brock University Badgers women’s soccer team coach, John Durish.
“When she was nine, Sabrina was outside-left midfielder in her first year and was a top 3 goal scorer on the team,” Durish said. “The following year she had different aspirations when she came to spring training.
“Sabrina said, ‘She wanted to play goal,’ and I could tell she would be a good keeper because she was so athletic. I talked to her and her father (Gerry) about how I needed a commitment from her to play goal for the whole season, not just part of it if she didn’t like playing goal.
“Sabrina said, ‘Yes,’ and the rest is history.”
Sabrina has nothing but good memories when it comes to soccer. She has been playing since she was little, and it is a family affair.
“I started playing soccer when I was about five and I remember my first year I got to play on the same team as my brother,” she said. “My dad played soccer growing up and my brother (Derek) was already involved in it so my parents put me in it as well. I loved it from the start and was a natural.”
Gerry D’Angelo, Sabrina’s dad, played goalkeeper for the St. Catharines Roma Wolves, and he thinks his daughter has found her comfort zone in the NCAA.
“I was concerned about her playing with the senior players, but after the first couple of games against Duke and Wake Forest I saw that Sabrina had no fear about going up to get the ball in the box,” Gerry said. “I wasn’t totally surprised at how she performed with her college team because she has experience playing at a higher level.”
Her dad is right, Sabrina definitely has experience playing at a higher level after backstopping three national squads to the championship podium: the 2010 U17 CONCACAF Gold Medal Champions, the 2008 U17 CONCACAF Bronze Medal Champions, and the bronze medal won by the 2006 U16 National All-Stars.
“My parents (Gerry and Bonnie) were very important in my success,” Sabrina said. “They were the ones who drove me all over the place, four times a week, for training, and it can get very exhausting over five years.
“Without them I would not have developed into the player I am today.”
For five years, Bonnie and Gerry D’Angelo did the three-hour drive with their daughter to the city of Vaughn and back to Welland, but they enjoyed every minute of it.
“We actually miss the trips we used to take with Sabrina and the team,” Bonnie D’Angelo said. “Looking back on it, you realize that all those family memories will last a lifetime.”
Now, Sabrina’s enjoying her first year of living away from home and playing soccer on a full-ride scholarship at the University of South Carolina in the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the NCAA.
“I love South Carolina and couldn’t imagine being at any other school,” she said. “I live in residence at East Quad which is where most of the athletes live. I am with the famous football players, which is kind of cool. My dorm is in the middle of everything. I can go one way to the campus and my classes, and the opposite direction is our locker room and stadium. The campus is beautiful, and I don’t mind my classes.
“I love the soccer down here and the team. They are an amazing group of girls and work extremely hard.”
After finishing first overall in the SEC during the 2011 regular season, South Carolina lost 2-1 to the University of Alabama in the SEC Championship Tournament. The good news is, after a 15-win season, the Gamecocks have earned an invite to the NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championship Tournament.
“Of course our team has learned our lessons with our loss to Kentucky in the regular season and our recent loss to Alabama in the SEC tournament,” Sabrina said. “We bounced back great from our loss against Kentucky, so, hopefully, with our loss against Alabama we will be back again for the NCAA’s.”
The pressure of the NCAA championship games will provide Sabrina with the pressure-packed experience she can use in the future when she gets the call to represent her country.
“It would be an honour to get invited to future Canadian National Team camps, and I hope that once the new coach for the U20’s is assigned they will give me a call.”
Regardless of what happens on the field, Gerry D’Angelo hopes his daughter never loses sight of why she plays the game,
“When we were doing all that running around we never envisioned her going to the States on a scholarship,” he said. “We just did it because we loved it, and so did she.”
