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By Anfal Hanif
“Pressure makes diamonds.”
That’s a quote that stuck with Violet Desaulniers this soccer season, one where the Ottawa South United Force player wound up playing a rather unexpected critical role with an older team.
The Force U14 girls’ soccer team had been hit by numerous key injuries early in their Ontario Player Development League season, but for Desaulniers, the first challenge to overcome was believing she belonged.
The defender from Cornwall previously competed with the Seaway Valley Blazers before joining OSU. In her first year in the OPDL, she was called up from OSU’s 2013-born team to play with the older U14 group.
“I was not confident at all,” Desaulniers recalls. “I doubted myself so much that I was nearly telling my parents, I don’t think I would like to do this anymore.”
By the end of the season, the reasons to doubt had fully evaporated as she and her teammates celebrated an OPDL Charity Shield playoff championship at the Ontario Soccer Centre in Vaughan.
It was an unlikely triumph for a team that started its season with back-to-back three-goal losses and only secured a spot above the cut-line for the premier division in its final east division game thanks to a 78th-minute goal.
“The injuries were terrible for our team,” underlines OSU coach Guillermo Nebra, whose squad lost three players long-term to knee injuries.
“The only thing that I told (the players called up) is, ‘Look, we are a club. We are not only one team. We are a club, and we need to help each other, and we need to be confident and understand that it’s very important to play up,’ and many days, two or three players might play more than 100 minutes a weekend.”
The injuries thrust several unlikely characters into bigger roles in the team’s story. Desaulniers was one who stepped up to play a big part, and another was Coby Smith, a striker with OSU’s U13s who became a winger with the U14s.
“I learned a lot – making smart decisions, sometimes being risky, and always moving the ball forward,” Smith says of her experience with the older group. “My most memorable experience was definitely the final game. Right when I got on the field, there was this burst of excitement, and it was really cool.”
The finish to the big game wasn’t too bad either. Smith scored the final goal as the Force downed Aurora 4-0 to walk away with the Charity Shield crown on Oct. 25.
Aurora received a red card in the 26th minute and OSU leading scorer Julia Metson opened the scoring a minute later. Metson added an insurance goal in the 69th minute and Brooklyn Hart joined in the fun just before the final whistle.
The end result was almost unimaginable considering the team’s early struggles. After the sound defeats in their first two games, the Force managed to battle into position to qualify for the premier level. They could punch their ticket to premier with a win in their last game of east division play against Vaughan, which had lost only once, to league-leading Unionville Milliken.
It was a tight contest at George Nelms Sports Park, and it took a last-moment goal from Lianna Clyde to book OSU’s spot in premier, as the home side triumphed 3-2. It was one of many clutch contributions from Clyde this season. She scored 16 goals in total and was co-leading scorer in the premier division alongside teammate Metson, one of the players who’d missed much of the east schedule while injured.
OSU continued to find its stride in premier play, going undefeated with five wins and four draws. The Force finished second overall to 7-1-1 Unionville Milliken and captured one of the two Ontario berths available in next summer’s Canadian Player Development Program National Championships tournament.
Strong defence was paramount from the likes of centre-backs Hart and Rowan Sanchez, backed by goalkeeper Alexia D’Alessio, as OSU conceded less than one goal per game on average through premier play and the playoffs, although Nebra underlines that it was all about the sum of the parts.
“For me, if we don’t have 17 players, it’s impossible to reach the final,” highlights the UEFA A-licensed coach from Zaragoza, Spain. “If you don’t have teammates, it’s impossible to win a match. Messi playing against 11 kids, the 11 kids are going to win.”
For Desaulniers, the final represented more than a championship. It was a chance to see how far she had come since joining the older group, as she adjusted to the new setting and learned to trust her abilities.
She transitioned from centre-back to fullback, taking on new responsibilities as she grew more comfortable with the team. The more experienced players helped her settle in, while the coaches and captains helped elevate her confidence.
Smith says the team’s strong connections played a big part in allowing the group to adapt and maintain cohesiveness when changes were forced upon them.
“I think it was just communicating as a team,” she explains, “solving the problems, working together, teamwork, and really bonding as a team.”