Freshman Allison Choi played soccer for Aardsley High School in Westchester, N.Y., and when she realized her only option to play at Seton Hall was on the varsity team, she decided to take matters into her own hands.
"I really wanted to join a soccer team, so I asked around and talked to my PA and he said that I would be able to start it up by myself by putting up posters and getting interest through Facebook," Choi said.
Choi's efforts were a success. The new women's club soccer team has 24 members and is practicing this spring in preparation for league play that starts in the fall.
"I was overwhelmed with the amount of girls who were interested in joining the team," Choi said. "They all wanted to play soccer but could not because there was no team."
Choi found some help from sophomore Jordan Scrape, who contacted Associate Athletic Director Kathleen Matta and set up a meeting to discuss the details of starting a club team, such as prices, referees, game spaces, practices and finding a coach. The team will compete locally against other club teams.
"We're in a league, but that doesn't start until the fall because we're still in our provisional sea- son," Scrape said. "We play teams like Rutgers, Montclair State, Princeton."
The team's coach, who Choi described as "very enthusiastic", is Jon Aliaga, a former soccer coach at the high school of two girls on the team; Maura Jones and Isabelle Sacco.
Since Choi was new to the process, she got in contact with the women's soccer team at Seton Hall and the men's club team to get some tips on how to start the program.
The women's varsity team donated their old jerseys to the club team and the captain of the men's club team shared information about his team to help guide them through the process. The women's club soccer team is not the only new sport to start
up recently. Club baseball and volleyball are also additions to the club sports scene. Seton Hall has also had ice hockey, rugby, lacrosse and men's soccer to offer as club sports.
Mike can be reached at michael.romano1@student.shu.edu.
