Little sister’ following similar path to Team Canada

By Dan Plouffe

If you’re at the Louis-Riel Dome, you’ll likely spot them together. One has played for Team Canada, while the other recently took a big step closer to realizing her national team dreams. Together, they are a pair of highly talented young soccer players who’ve developed a close friendship despite an age gap of four years.

First, there’s 19-year-old Haïsha Cantave, a former under-17 CONCACAF continental champion with Canada whose most recent career stop was with Swiss club FC Neunkirch.

And then there’s Adrienne Li, a 15-year-old who’s eager to follow in Cantave’s footsteps and who attended her first national team camp this past December – part of the selection process for the Canadian 2014 U17 World Cup squad.

Cantave is actually Li’s coach with FC Capital United, although that doesn’t mean she won’t jump on the pitch now and again, or suddenly grab Li in a headlock as the case may be – playfully, although neither competitor gives an inch nonetheless.

“She’s like a little sister to me,” Cantave explains. “But I look up to her and I’m very proud of her achievements and everything that she’s done too.”

Li finds herself on a similar path as Cantave. They first met when they were both working out with Parmar Sports Training, and then got to know each other better at Louis-Riel high school.

“It’s really great” knowing that someone else from the same background can be a leader for a Canadian national team, Li notes. “There’s somebody to look up to, someone to ask questions to.”

Li’s carried big soccer dreams for a long time, and when a real-life star walked in the same hallways as her, she couldn’t let an opportunity like that pass to learn from one of the best youth players in the country.

“Adrienne and I used to be together every single day,” recounts Cantave, who played on boys’ teams for much of her youth career at Capital United, and also dressed for the Ottawa Internationals and Ottawa Fury. “She always used to be at my locker. She knew the combination to my locker and I knew hers.”

While that may be a recipe for pranks, the friends actually took the opposite route, often surprising each other with their favourite candy, birthday gifts, or notes of encouragement when they had a big camp or competition coming up.

So on the day Cantave decided she’d be going to a junior college in Albany, GA for her senior year, there were tears from both. But Cantave felt it was time to experience the game abroad. The speedy former OFSAA finalist sprinter finished second in the country with her Darton team, then went straight to Switzerland for three months at the suggestion of her uncle, who was already overseas with Cantave’s cousin Miki at FC Nantes’ youth academy.

“I always wanted to play in Europe, and I still want to go back,” says the striker who played against two German national team players in the league, but didn’t enjoy her club’s defence-oriented approach. “It wasn’t really my cup of tea.”

After a year-and-a-half away, Cantave was happy to come home, see her family and friends, and coach players at Cap U, on top of her job at Bayshore Shopping Centre. “Ever since I got home, I want to figure out how far soccer can take me,” she highlights. “I do want to play pro eventually, but it’s going to take time, so all I need to do is keep working out and keep training.”

Li rates camp a success

Cantave returned just in time for Li’s first appearance at a national team camp, in Vaughan.

“It was really intense. Everyone was there to win a spot on the team, and everyone was always, always working hard,” recalls the midfielder/centre back who travels to Toronto frequently for training with the provincial team. “But I felt I could keep up with them, so that was really good.”

Li has to wait awhile to make sure she gets invited to the next camp, which has not yet been scheduled but is expected to occur in the next couple months. For now, she’s happy to have her friend and role model back, even if it means a few extra surprise headlock attacks than usual.

“A lot of people would say I’m just like her younger sister. We’re always together,” the Grade 10 student describes. “We have similar personalities. And we both share the passion and love for soccer.”