Whether it’s on the court or on the pitch, if you’re playing soccer, you’ll have a hard time stopping Hasana Church.
The Hapnot Collegiate grad and former soccer Kweens standout has wrapped up her third year of collegiate soccer at Brandon University, earning one of the province’s highest honours in futsal in the process.
Futsal, a fast-paced indoor version of soccer, is played by teams in the Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference (MCAC) during winter months. Most of the teams are made up of players from each school’s soccer team. Church has played each of the last three years on the turf for the Bobcats, making the all-conference all-star team at the end of the outdoor season.
A third-year player, Church headed into the futsal season slotted in as a veteran leader on a team chock-full of freshmen and sophomores. That role morphed into something larger when the team’s captain was injured and ruled out for the entire futsal season. Church was named the team’s co-captain.
“We lost a lot of players to injuries. We were going in with a pretty small roster. I think going into it, we were a little bit nervous in how we were going to handle playing. We had a lot of rookies and not necessarily as much experience as some other teams will have had,” Church said.
“I think, honestly, the season was better than we would have hoped it would have gone.”
Throughout the season, the Bobcats ebbed and flowed. Starting with a 6-2 loss on their home court to Canadian Mennonite University (CMU), Church and the Bobcats got their first win hours later. When the dust settled on the regular season, the Bobcats finished with a 4-2-4 record and 14 points - higher than fifth-place Providence and their 11 point finish, enough to qualify for the year-end final four tournament.
“I would say that probably my biggest strength is being able to take people on, one vs. one,” Church said.
“A lot of times, my role would be teammates getting me the ball to either distribute it for somebody else to score or for me to take a player on and score.”
The Flin Flonner proved to be a weapon on offence, finishing tied for the team lead in scoring with teammate Ashley Seekings and tied for second overall in league scoring. Church and Seekings both scored 12 goals in 10 games, with teammates Kiera Riehl and Siri Freeman adding eight goals and five goals each.
“We were lucky that all four of our starters, if you look at the league scoring, all four of us were up really high.”
Heading into the final four, the Bobcats drew the short straw and had to play first-seed Saint-Boniface. Les Rouges had not lost a game during the futsal season, going 8-2-0. The Bobcats played them twice during the regular season, losing once and earning a draw.
The end result wasn’t good for Brandon. Les Rouges controlled the balance of play, winning 5-1 en route to a championship win.
While the season ended on a sour note, Church got a consolation prize, being named to the conference all-star team for her play through the indoor season.
“I was really excited. There’s only five players who are chosen. To be selected to [the team], I was really excited,” she said.
“I was not expecting it because it’s a very competitive league. Compared to my last two previous years, like I felt like I had improved. I felt like I was making a difference for our team. It was quite the honour to receive that.”
Church has played her final game as a Bobcat. She plans on transferring to the University of Winnipeg to finish her degree later this year. Church has two more years of eligibility for college or university play and hopes to continue playing soccer somewhere. The U of W has a USports women’s soccer program, a rung higher on the ladder from the MCAC, but Church is unsure whether she would find a spot.
“I’m going to try to make the team there. I’ve got a few tryouts and stuff. I was hoping to go to another tryout in April, but I don’t think that’ll be happening now with everything that will be going on.”
