The date was October 19, 2011. The women’s soccer team,
hosting Bryn Mawr College, was up 4-0 with just two minutes left to
play in the second half. Then, an assisted strike found the back of
the net. Tears filled the sidelines. Lady Fords jumped with joy
through the slushy grass at Walton Field. A mob of white jerseys
rushed the penalty box. Lindsay Ryan ’12 had scored her first
collegiate goal.
“Sophie [Eiger] and the other girls worked so hard
to get the ball down the field,” Ryan said. “I was just
at the right place at the right time.”
A chemistry major and education minor, Ryan says that her soccer
experience at Haverford has been incredible. She wouldn’t
have preferred to play on any other team. It was the team cohesion
and unity that made four seasons of varsity soccer at Haverford so
enjoyable.
“I’ve just learned so much about being a great human
being through playing soccer,” said Ryan. “It’s
hard not to, since there’s so many nice people training with
me every day; and everyone’s working so hard—everyone
wants the team to succeed. It’s no wonder that our best games
are when we play for each other, not for ourselves. That’s
something I want to carry on with me throughout life. You
have to be selfless if you want your team to succeed. So, you have
to be selfless through life as well.”
Currently an Upperclassmen Advisor as part of Haverford’s
‘customs’ program, Ryan has dreams after graduation of
becoming a pediatrician. She plans to attend medical school within
the next few years, but would first like to travel and teach around
the world.
“I was studying abroad in Barbados for five months [last
spring]. I learned so much from one little place. I just think
about how many places there are in the world and I want to see them
all. And meet all the people.”
Another recent traveling highlight for Ryan was the soccer
team’s training trip in Brazil. Soccer is “the
world’s game,” she explains. She was touched by the
waves of people that cared so much about watching a small Division
III school play soccer. The sport is a tradition that thousands of
cultures across the globe hold close to their hearts. That’s
why Ryan hopes to be a representative for the charitable Grassroot
Soccer (GRS) organization, a nonprofit company that uses soccer as
a “universal language” and the power of the sport to
“educate, inspire, and mobilize communities to stop the
spread of HIV.” The vision of the organization: “a
world mobilized through soccer to create an AIDS-free
generation.”
Here is the company’s approach: “GRS realized that
the true power of soccer has always been connections that it
creates between people. Using footballers as role models, and using
the popularity of soccer to engage hard to reach young people, GRS
has combined social theory, public health methodologies, rigorous
evaluation and a huge dose of passion.”
Ryan is currently working on receiving a teaching fellowship in
certain countries that have GRS programs. Those places include
South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho,
Malawi, Namibia, Sudan, Tanzania, Guatemala and the Dominican
Republic.
- Jordan Schilit ’13
Haverford SAAC
SAAC is the college’s student-athlete advisory
committee, which discusses issues that affect the well-being of
Haverford’s student-athletes on campus and within the
Centennial Conference and the NCAA. For more information, please
check out the SAAC web site.
