Adai Ibrahim, coach of the intramural soccer club, met with potential female players at an interest meeting on Monday. The meeting was an effort to spark interest among talented young women who might want to showcase their skills. Previous experience or skill was not a requirement.
“If you can dance, sing, anything- you can play soccer,” Ibrahim said. “It is not difficult. All we’re looking for is dedication, and the desire to play.”
The university asked Ibrahim to coach the soccer club in hopes to generate it into an organized athletic team. Ibrahim has been a coach for 20 years.
“The money is there, but the university wants to see if the interest is there among the students,” he said.
Currently the soccer club is co-ed. Because of the low number of female participants, it is not yet possible for the female players to branch off into their own team.
Jessica Lemmie has been playing soccer with the club for three years.
“We [females] want to go our separate way so that we don’t have to play with the boys,” she said. “Last fall, we only had one all girl’s game, and that was against Georgia Southern.”
Lemmie said that because there wasn’t enough interest last year, that they didn’t have uniforms.
“We work orange shirts and black shorts,” she said. “My first year, we paid for uniforms, but players that were on the team took them instead of leaving them for players after them. We also had to rent vans in order to go the away games.”
Ibrahim hopes that more interest among female soccer players will be present so that the soccer club can become a soccer team. If the interest is there, this can be done in a couple of years. Unfortunately, only nine people showed up.
The majority of people who came to Monday’s meeting said people did not know about it.
Ibrahim said that any potential female participants should come by the intramural athletic office located inside the fitness center. Potential participants can fill out a contact sheet, leaving their name and contact number in order to get practice days and more information.