Peterborough Woman On Her Love For The Beautiful Game & What Electric City FC Would Mean To Her
/“I don’t believe skill was, or ever will be, the result of coaches. It is the result of a love affair between the child and the ball.” —Roy Maurice Keane
My name is Liz Shaughnessy-Rowe (aka “Coach Liz” to all the kids that play for Cavan FC) and my love affair with the beautiful game started the moment I stepped onto the pitch.
My summers and winters were spent battling with my teammates in pursuit of trophies and league titles. We definitely didn’t win every title or trophy and it wasn’t always easy, trust me, tears were shed in the process. Have you ever lost in a shootout before? Not exactly my idea of a good time. Sports have taught me that success and failure are both acceptable outcomes, since we learn more when we fail. In fact, I wouldn’t be who I am today without all those moments.
Liz Shaughnessy in action (Photo by Jay Callaghan)
So of course when we signed our kids up at U4 to be the next Canadian superstars, I obviously wanted to be their coach. Eventually I had the opportunity to coach them in rep soccer at a soccer club that I instantly fell in love with, Cavan FC, a club that feels like a family.
While coaching, I can’t tell you how many times I just wanted to put my cleats on and go out on the pitch and finish the game and although I love coaching, I realized I really missed playing competitively.
(Photo by Jay Callaghan)
I missed being apart of the moment and being able to change the outcome of the game as a player. The moments where time slows down and you and you’re teammates flow into space. Decisions are made and seconds change the outcome of those decisions.
Although I had fun with a beautiful team (you know who you are), recreational soccer just wasn’t enough anymore. I needed to see if I still had it.️ So after 17 years of recreational soccer I finally started playing competitively again (insert heart busting out of chest emoji).
(Photo by Jay Callaghan)
Cavan FC had a very successful men’s team and I thought it was time we had a woman’s team for the girls in our club to look up to. I can’t even begin to tell you how amazing it was to finally play competitive soccer again. Travelling to other cities with my teammates representing Cavan FC and kicking butt was exactly what I needed. I enjoyed every single moment knowing that I don’t know how many more seasons I have left of competitive soccer.
Cavan FC women’s team finished our inaugural season in first place (if you’re not first you’re last!) and yes this old lady even won the golden boot. But my favourite thing that happened my first season as a player coach was that I once again fell in love with the beautiful game—this time on a whole new level.
(Photo by Jay Callaghan)
See each time you play it, you fall deeper in love with it. When you coach it, you fall in love with it. When you watch it (which I didn’t start doing until 2018 World Cup and now I’m obsessed), you fall in love with it. More recently, with #covid2020 random pickup soccer with amazing people from all over the world, you fall in love with it. They don’t call it the beautiful game for nothing.
Liz with her daughters
When I had the opportunity to talk with all the guys involved behind the scenes of the Electric City Football Club (ECFC) startup about their vision and what it meant for our area, I was so excited. Let me tell you why.
The first person that told me about the League1 Ontario team was Neil Morton. Fun fact: I once got him a three month supply of Crest Whitestrips for making a joke about how white his teeth are on Twitter and tagging Crest in the tweet. But enough about Neil’s white teeth, we’re talking about footy! Anyone who knows Neil knows he’s extremely passionate about our community and he also loves the beautiful game. So if he’s excited about the potential that it has for our unique community, then that fires me up.
(Photo by Jay Callaghan)
Then cue Keaton Robbins (the guy who peer pressured me to write this). You only have to speak to him once to understand how brilliant he is and to know he is a lifelong fan of the game! So after meeting with Keaton for lunch and understanding this is going to actually be a thing, I got even more excited.
Then I got on the phone with future ECFC head coach Adrian Cann and that’s when I knew this football club has all amazing people involved in it. Not for their own personal glory but to see the game grow and for their love of our community and the game. I instantly loved his passion not only for the game but for coaching and helping kids who want to do more then just play for their local club with his ability to connect you all around the world. Plus he’s a centre back, and you’ve got to be a smart hard working player to play that position at a professional level.
Adrian Cann in his Toronto FC days (Photo courtesy Adrian Cann)
Now it’s time to talk about why I’m so excited and what it means for our area! I am one of the technical trainers for all age groups in Cavan FC. If you get stuck chatting with me about footy, you will know my passion is long term player development. I love planting seeds of development, building their foundation, and helping them find their soccer personality knowing that in the process I’m helping them fall in love with the beautiful game.
So now while I’m coaching and planting seeds of development, I can now also plant seeds of an actual future in this sport. Which up until now to have a future in this sport, you had to leave our city. Now we will have a real local opportunity to allow kids to keep dreaming that they have a chance to do something with the sport they love.
(Photo by Jay Callaghan)
League 1 Ontario is a stepping stone in a development system to being noticed beyond your own city. Look at Alphonso Davies making history at Bayern Munich as the first Canadian men's player to win a Champions League title. The world is taking notice that maybe Canada does know how to play.
He had some words of advice for anyone looking up to him and following to follow in his footsteps in these tweets…
Did you know three prominent Canadian players were also vying for the Champions league trophy on the women’s side? Ashley Lawrence and Jordyn Huitema played for Paris Saint-Germain, and Kadeisha Buchanan who played for the champions, Lyon—making this Buchanan’s fourth consecutive champions league title. Pretty impressive and she played a full 90 minutes to boot.
Electric City Football Club isn’t just a great opportunity for soccer in our community. What gets me excited is the potential it brings for girls in our community. This will be the first sport that offers a semi-pro opportunity in the area for girls! How amazing is that?!
According to Gatorade's “Girls In Sports” study, girls are dropping out of sports at one and a half times the rate that boys do by age 14. By age 17, more than half of girls will quit playing sports altogether. Which is a shame because it’s important for girls to find something they’re awesome at, and that it’s okay for girls to kick boys’ butts! It’s easy to write that but the reality of it is it’s tough being taught to be a female athlete.
Society demands compliance to the enforced gender order. When these gender norms are violated, it is common for labels to be given. In fact, I’ve had my sexuality questioned on more then than one occasion only because I’m a strong athlete. I grew up with both my parents playing sports and remember my mom telling me a story that after she hit a home run in baseball, one of the husbands on the other team yelled out “I bet she stands up to pee” inferring that only a man could be strong enough to to hit a home run.
I guess he never met my sister who after her softball games would come home with Dairy Queen in hand and we would ask, “How many home runs did you hit today Kate?” Strength, determination and competitiveness doesn’t have a gender. So please, if you’re reading this stop acting like woman can’t compete, we live for game night the same way as anyone else!
All of these things feed into a pressure female athletes face. If you stand out, you don’t necessarily get the same attention a male athlete gets. Some see muscular as manly instead of strong and beautiful. Theodore Rosevelt said “comparison is the thief of joy” and unfortunately today’s girls are bombarded with images of external beauty and not enough of those confident, strong athletic female role models who kick ass.
We shouldn’t be trying to be look like each other or comparing ourselves to others because we all have a unique gift. We are all built differently and we should learn to love and embrace ourselves because let’s be honest: every single one of us is insecure about something!
So if the number of girls participating in sports starts decreases in the teenage years, then so do the programs for the sport of their choice. Meaning they have to settle to play on a less competitive team because they still want to play or they have to leave the area to pursue their dreams of playing at a higher level.
(Photo by Jay Callaghan)
Having a League1 Ontario opportunity for the girls of our area would be amazing because if you’re good enough, you’re old enough and League1 Ontario teams are made up of mixed ages, highlighting the strongest talent in the area. So I look forward to seeing the day when Electric City Football Club rolls out their women’s side!
But let’s remember one thing: Peterborough creating a Football Club doesn’t just happen over night. Look at Leeds United, for example: It only took them 16 years to get back in the Premier League and their fans have been there every step of the way! So join me from Day 1 one to support our local Football Club and be apart of watching what it will grow into.
Photo by Ontario Soccer League
