Desiree ‘the Destroyer’ teams up with CFLers

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/10/2020 (2150 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was supposed to be the swan song of Desiree Scott’s celebrated international career.

A trip to the Summer Olympics with her Canadian teammates, chasing more hardware after consecutive bronze-medal finishes in 2012 and 2016, would have put an emphatic stamp on a 10-year career on the national women’s soccer team.

Instead, the COVID-19 pandemic forced a postpostment of the Summer Olympics and the 33-year-old midfielder put off retirement until next year, when she hopes to rejoin the nats at a rescheduled Tokyo Games.

“Every day is harder to continue to motivate yourself,” said Scott from home in Winnipeg, where she is taking leave from her pro club, Utah Royals FC of the National Women’s Soccer League. “You know… I was planning, honestly, on retiring after this summer’s Olympics and finishing out.

“The postponement has had me re-evaluate things. My plan is to hopefully go and be a part of those Olympics if they do happen. But right now it’s kind of a week-to-week basis. I still have all that passion and fire to want to play. It just depends on where COVID takes things.” 

In the meantime, she’s also preparing for life when her playing career is done and teaching the game is part of the plan.

To that end, she’s joined with local CFL players DJ Lalama and Andrew Harris of Pro Prep Academy to stage a two-day soccer camp for players aged 10 to 14 at Dakota Collegiate’s Murray Field later this month. 

Last month, Harris and Lalama launched the Pro Prep Flag Football League, set to kick off its inaugural season Friday, to provide a competitive outlet for high school, college and pro football players left without a league to play in during the pandemic. 

Now they’re branching out into soccer. 

“They’re good friends of mine and obviously the athlete community is tight-knit,” said Scott. “They’re big names within the community and are passionate about the sport and obviously I am the same about soccer.

“They came to me with an opportunity to get involved with the academy and sort of run my own soccer camp and it was, honestly, a no-brainer. It’s something I’ve been looking forward to doing for a long time.”

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Thursdays

Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter.

Sign up for Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Sign Up

I consent to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies.

I consent to CASL agreement.

The event, dubbed the Pro Prep Academy Desiree Scott Soccer Camp, costs $150 per player and will be held Oct. 10-11, with sessions from noon to 2 p.m. both days.

Registration information is available at proprepacademy.ca.

“We’re going to start with a soccer camp and then we’re hoping people will stay tuned for more details and what’s to come,” said Scott, before hinting at what may be coming: “More camps, more often within the city and when I get more time off, obviously my commitment is to give back to the local athletes here and give them that sort of 360 degree development that Pro Ppep can provide.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14