Canadian Bulldogs embraced in big Women's Soccer Family
BryantBulldogs.com Exclusive
SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- Senior Claire Bergh (Calgary, Alberta) was warned.
"People said, 'oh, you might not want to live with the girls on your team. You're going to be around each other 24/7… you might butt heads,'" the Calgary, Alberta native said. "I've been living with the same people since Day 1 and we want to spend all of our time together. We're inseparable."
That's the effect that has carried her Bryant University women's soccer team to a 5-1-2 start to the 2017 season, the Bulldogs' best in the Division I era. Chemistry on the field might be easier to achieve on a team with three foreign players, but off the field is a different story. For Bergh and her fellow Canadians Brigitte Donaghy (Toronto, Ontario) and Alex Ralph (Peterborough, Ontario), it was clear right away what they were up for.
"Where I live, I'm only two hours from the border and I didn't think it was going to be that different," Donaghy said. "But a lot of the questions the girls had… I thought, 'really?'" she added with a laugh.
Donaghy and Bergh were roommates their freshman year in 2014, and they were a foreign tandem that joined then-coach Chris Flint's squad that had nobody further south or west than Pennsylvania.
"I've been asked some pretty funny questions," Bergh said. Her transition was made less-foreign by her cousins, Lucas and Matt Guerriero, who were already in Smithfield when she arrived.
"I heard about Bryant through them and they urged me to come to a camp," she said. She then committed the summer going into her junior year of high school.
A year after Donaghy and Bergh made their presence felt, Ralph entered the fold with experience already playing with Donaghy in summer circuits back home.
"Getting into soccer here definitely made it easier having someone I knew beforehand," the junior said. Just like her counterparts, she noticed the differences as well.
"Even when I go back home, I'm caught off-guard sometimes when people say "hi, how are you?" and I realize 'oh yeah, I have to answer you,'" she added, laughing.
Along with the cultural differences, the journeys have been different for all three. Bergh had her cousins, Donaghy was offered a National Letter of Intent in February and Ralph accepted an offer from Bryant, the first school to contact her.
Despite the differences between the countries, one of the commonalities is soccer and that did not change when the players' residence did.
"At home, the style we played was very passing and on-the-ground," Bergh said. "It was keeping the ball, passing and moving the ball."
That is the style that head coach Andy Biggs employs and it has allowed his players to excel. Ralph earned NEC All-Rookie honors her freshman year, Donaghy has been an anchor on the back line, making her 50th career start on Sunday against St. Bonaventure and Bergh scored the game-winning goal in Sunday's match with the Bonnies.
That familiarity and comfort on the field is compounded by what is nothing short of a 28-woman family off of it.
"I wish that everyone could play a college sport and just have that family," Donaghy said. "Our culture and what we have going on in our team is something that I've never really experienced before."
This includes big sections of fans at games and tailgates after games, win or lose, with spreads that would make some Thanksgiving meals jealous.
"I've only known them for three years but it feels like I've known them my entire life," Ralph said. "It has helped me not only become a better soccer player, but a better person for sure."
Bergh, Donaghy and Ralph traveled a combined 3598 miles for college, while the other 25 went a combined 3368 miles. So those families are coming into play more than just after games.
"We had friends inviting us into their homes and the parents that come up to games would take you under their wing and take you out to dinner," Donaghy said. "We joke that we're the orphans after games."
So yes, Bergh was warned. But this family isn't your ordinary group.
"Wherever I end up going after I graduate, I know that I'll have lifelong friends to come back to."