By Ottawa Sports Pages, for Ottawa TFC Soccer Club
For some, Christmas is the season to air grievances. So let’s get to it: featuring a pair of Ottawa TFC players who have been by each other’s sides pretty much every day for the last eight years.
Danika Birch says the worst thing about Amélie Boyle is she’s exceptionally aggressive.
“Playing against her sucks,” underlines Birch. “She’ll push you out the way – anything to get you out of the picture.”
Birch figures it’s best to have Boyle on her side, so one month after Boyle committed to Charleston Southern University, she accepted her offer from Buccaneers women’s soccer coach Jose Gomez to join the NCAA Div. 1 school as well.
That will keep the pair on the same track after playing on the same team since age 10, serving as co-captains for the highly-successful Ottawa TFC U17 girls, attending the same high school (Béatice-Desloges) and coaching together with their club’s U11/12 Girls’ Academy.
“We’re kind of always together,” signals Birch, who didn’t have trouble finding some nice things to say about Boyle too.
“She’s very supportive. She’s a perfect captain, great leader. And off the field, she’s a pretty good friend too,” smiles Birch, noting her aggressiveness can even be valuable, on top of irritating. “Having people that push you every day definitely helps.”
Now, Boyle’s turn to retort. Boyle says Birch can be a “drama queen” over the littlest things. But she counters that Birch is “a really good person and a friend you can always count on.”
“Same on the field too,” she adds.
Being close friends means each of them knows the other can accept a bit of ribbing. And they feel it will also help them feel comfortable and get to know others when they step into a new environment a thousand miles away from home in South Carolina.
“It’s amazing to have that bond, especially with someone I’m going to be rooming with,” highlights Birch.
They’ll also have some more familiar faces with two more fellow Ottawa TFC products already at Charleston – Jenea Knight and Boyle’s sister Jessica, who is two years older.
“I told myself I wasn’t going to go to Charleston since my sister was there,” Boyle recounts. “I kind of wanted my own story and I figured if I go to her school, I’d kind of be, maybe not in my sister’s shadow, but I’d be known as Jess’s little sister.
“But I’ve kind of realized that’s not how it’s gonna work, because I’m me, and I’m a very outgoing person, so I’ll make a name for myself. And once I visited the school, I honestly fell in love with it and I was like, ‘Wow. This is where I have to go.’”
Boyle is a defensive midfielder who reads plays well, is smart with the ball, and she’s a strong passer who earns many assists (plenty on passes to Birch). She grew up in a soccer-mad house and has played since age 3.
“It was very competitive between me and my sisters,” recalls Boyle, whose father Pat is a prominent coach at Ottawa TFC as well. “We’d always play together and kind of compete since we were close in age, but it’s always been fun.
“And very, very busy. Everyone’s always running everywhere.”
Boyle has proudly carried on that family coaching tradition and earned the club’s 2023 Female Youth Coach of the Year honour, as voted by her peers.
“I love the kids I coach. They’re just really funny and it’s fun to teach kids what I know and make memories with them. And I love being with kids because you can be yourself, or just be a kid, really,” explains Boyle, who dreams of becoming a child psychologist, inspired by her experiences coaching.
Birch, meanwhile, earned a similar award as Ottawa TFC’s 2023 Female Grassroots Coach of the Year.
The agile and speedy striker with lethal finishing ability started playing soccer at age 7 in Rockland, mostly with boys, which she says helped inspire competitiveness from a young age.
Within a few years of joining Ottawa TFC when her family moved to Ottawa, Birch got to play for Canada at the Danone Nations Cup in Barcelona (where she remembers the weather was great every day, which she hopes to experience again in South Carolina).
Birch won the 2023 Ontario Player Development League scoring title by one goal thanks to a hat trick in her final game for Ottawa TFC, finishing with 26 markers in 18 games.
Winning an OPDL U17 championship when she was U15 age was another major career highlight (same for Boyle, who was often called up to that squad too), but Birch says her favourite memories come from being with her teammates at out-of-town tournaments. It’s tough knowing that soon she won’t be with the friends who feel like family most days.
“It’s definitely bittersweet,” Birch indicates. “I’ve been with these teammates for a long time. We’re all very close friends and then I’m kind of going to have to rebuild that elsewhere.
“But you know, that’s life, and I know we’re leaving for a good thing. I’m really excited.”
Ottawa TFC is very pleased to see a pair of players move through its talented pathway and obtain university scholarships.
“We are so proud of all you have accomplished so far,” the club wrote on Instagram in announcing their signings. “You have an entire army of U9-U12 girls that will tune in to games and cheer you on, and a whole club behind you excited to watch you on your new journey!”
Learn more about Ottawa TFC Soccer Club at OttawaTFC.com.
