With her team trailing 1-0 at the half and the season hanging in the balance, Natalie Cooke put on her ‘Super Girl’ cape and went to work.
She scored four times in the half to lead the Richmond Colts senior girls soccer team to a 4-1 playoff win over the Steveston-London Sharks and lock up a berth in the Vancouver and District playdowns. Cooke won’t be relied upon to that extent for the next chapter in her soccer career.
The Grade 12 striker has earned a full-ride scholarship to the University of Nebraska. She actually leaves for Lincoln in early July to enroll in the school’s summer bridge program which will give her a head start on classes and her training.
The Colts will be in tough to progress in this week’s district playoffs but that’s okay for the city’s unofficial MVP. She is getting one final chance to play with her classmates and the team happens to be coached by her father — Dan Cooke. All four of her goals came on runs beyond 40 metres as she used her speed and skill to weave through Shark defenders.
“It’s definitely different doing things by myself most of the time,” she laughed. “But I have been playing with all these girls since Grade 8 and that’s why I’m out here.”
Cooke came through Richmond Girls Soccer and made an instant impression.
After her first season, she was aged up and played with year older teams. She was also training regularly with Total Soccer Systems (TSS) and eventually was invited to join the Richmond-based academy on a full-time basis.
She left her RGSA team and also stepped away from Richmond Girls Softball to focus exclusively on the TSS program. Cooke joined the TSS Black team in her Grade 10 year which is guided by Brendan Quarry and designed to showcase the academy’s top graduating players to university and college teams.
“It’s very possession based and skilled oriented,” said Cook in describing the TSS philosophy. “You really work on your skills and evasive dribbling. You get that stuff down before working into bigger play. It’s just a good atmosphere to be in.”
Cooke’s initial interest was attending university in Eastern Canada with Ontario schools Queen’s and Laurier being near the top of her list. That was until TSS put together player recruiting profiles and sent them out to their usual contacts.
Among those to show immediate interest in Cooke was Nebraska head coach John Walker. Soon after, he flew to Vancouver to watch her play. Following further correspondence, she was invited to Lincoln for an unofficial visit last June.
Cooke was immediately impressed with the soccer program and the school’s academic opportunities. She even reached out to Sari Raber — a Richmond native and Nebraska women’s soccer grad who continued her studies in medicine at UBC. It’s the same career Cooke is interested in.
She made a verbal commitment then headed back to Nebraska in late September when she had the chance to attend a Cornhuskers football game in front of 90,000 fans.
“It was crazy. Such a great atmosphere,” Cooke smiled. “All the people were so sweet and everyone was saying hello. It was just so different compared to back home.”
Cooke is one of eight recruits in the Cornhusker’s class of 2021. The team plays a fall season and is part of the Big 10 Conference. Nebraska was 11-6-5 overall last season and qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the second time in four years.
The depth chart suggests Cooke will have a good opportunity for playing time as a freshman.
She is the third city female athlete from the 2017 graduation class to earn a full-ride athletic scholarship to an American school — joining McMath’s Camryn Rogers (athletics, Cal-Berkeley) and Burnett’s Alisha Lau (golf, Colorado).
Corner kicks...
The McMath Wildcats defeated the Colts Thursday to earn the No. 1 “AAA” seed for the Vancouver and District playoffs.
Lauren Dickson and Kirsten Whilshire paced the attack for the unbeaten Wildcats, while senior Georgia Booker anchored the backline.
The McRoberts Strikers earned the top “AA” seed with a 2-0 win over the McNair Marlins in extra time. They both head to the “AA” District playoffs along with the Burnett Breakers who earned the final berth by slipping past Hugh Boyd 1-0.
