Together as Timberwolves since 2016, Mara McCleary and Paige Payne figured their time as UNBC women’s soccer teammates had come to a permanent end when they graduated in the spring of 2021.
At the time, neither was able to utilize their fifth and final year of U SPORTS eligibility; the pandemic took care of that when it wiped it the entire season.
McLeary, a juggernaut on defence, equalled Payne’s Canada West Second Team All-Star achievement in 2019, her fourth season, and returned to her Victoria hometown figuring she was done with playing university soccer after earning a physics degree.
That lost season obviously left a feeling of unfinished business wearing the green and gold because they’re back with the T-wolves. The 24-year-olds are the elder statesmen on a young UNBC team that begins its season Saturday on the road in Kelowna against UBC-Okanagan.
The chance to play one more year of soccer proved irresistible to McCleary, who hopes to explore professional opportunities next year in Europe, most likely in Sweden, where she spent five months playing for an academy team from January-May 2018 on an exchange to Linnaeus University.
“I still have more I want to do with soccer and for right now this (playing for UNBC) is the next step for me keeping up to speed and still playing high-performance soccer while I try to make things happening in Europe,” said McCleary, who is taking a few general studies courses.
“This was how it was supposed to be, pre-pandemic, that was my plan, but obviously with the pandemic and I had a big injury (torn Achilles tendon) it’s almost like I’m pressing reset again.”
McLeary and Payne broke into Canada West at the same time as high school graduates and had three months this summer to rekindle their ties playing for the Victoria Highlanders in the new League1 BC for their long-time UNBC head coach Neil Sedgwick.
“I notice we have that extra connection out there, she knows what I’m thinking and I know what she’s thinking and we tend to connect well that way,” said McCleary. “We both know what the team intention is every game because we’ve played under Neil for so long. Now we’re into preseason, everything is pretty similar.”
Payne became the first-ever Canada West All-Star in Timberwolves women’s soccer history when she led the team with eight goals and 12 points in her third season and after the lost COVID season she went home to Kitimat to ponder her future, armed with a biomedical degree. She been accepted into the physiotherapy program and will begin a 26-month program in September.
“I’m grateful to have the opportunity to come back, obviously it was a bit difficult with COVID having my final year kind of taken from me, but I got into the physiotherapy program at UNBC and it allowed me to play my last season here with the girls,” said Payne, who is seven years older than some of her teammates.
“During this preseason our team has really been focusing on attack and you can tell it’s kind of linking up really well, so I’m anxious to see how that transfers into our season,” said Payne. “With my attacking mindset I hope to bring the whole team towards the net getting some goals. I have been playing striker in the preseason, just working on finishing and bringing that calmness around the net, because we have a young team.”
McCleary and Payne give the T-wolves some of what they dearly lack – Canada West Conference experience. Aside from Prince George-born midfielder Hannah Emmond, they are the only fifth-year players on the team. Payne has 21 points as the most prolific point-producer on the all-time UNBC list and her ability to create offence and finish chances is a welcome addition to a team that scored just six goals in 12 games last year.
“It’s great to have them back, they were the first recruits I had when I came to UNBC and dix year later they’re still here,” said Sedgwick. “They bring experience and leadership, whether it’s up front or at the back, they have the quality t help the team.”
This is one of the youngest, most inexperienced T-wolves teams since UNBC joined Canada West in 2012. Fourth-year midfielder Kiama Swift of Sooke, and a pair of third-years - striker Claire Turner of Fort St. John and defender Sarah Lepine of Calgary are the only other T-wolves whose U SPORTS resumes go beyond two years. Monika Johnson, a fourth-year All-Canadian striker in 2019 with the Fraser Valley Cascades, suffered a season-ending knee injury in a training session this year. Still facing her second ACL surgery, she won’t play at all in her second season with UNBC.
Swift ranks third on the active T-wolves roster with 39 Canada West starts, behind McCleary (55) and Payne (49). Representing Tonga, her mother’s birthplace, Swift played three games in July at the Oceana Football Confederation Women’s Nations Cup tournament in Fiji and scored a goal in one of those games.
“She establishes the competitive standard, said Sedgwick. “If every player could reach that and work towards what she does and her actions on the field, it would be massive for us. She’s difficult for any opponent to play because she’s tenacious. She’s an exceptional ball-winner and then when she has the ball she’s very good at taking care of it and she sees the right path.”
The T-wolves were outscored 30-6 last year and as a rookie, forward Kjera Hayman of Penticton scored three of those six goals. Among the newcomers to watch are forward Kate Ratee of Kamloops, striker Sidney Elliott of Powell River and midfielder/striker Camryn Clyne of Powell River, who red-shirted last year with an ankle injury have all impressed their coaches in preseason play. The T-wolves played four games last week in Edmonton and are at New Westminster tonight for their final preseason test Douglas College. Cambria Mellum of Kelowna has the tools on defence to have a breakout rookie season equally adapt and breaking up attacks as she is at springing teammates into the clear.
“As far as an attacking team, this might be the most exciting group that we have,” said Sedgwick. “We certainly have a few players capable of getting behind defenders but I think the way the entire team thinks, they’re all thinking the same way when we get into the attacking half of the field. Whereas in past years we’ve had to spend so much time getting organized at the back and then building to make it to the attacking half. Now we’re able to take advantage of the space behind.”
Goalie Brooke Molby played every minute of all 12 games last year and her presence in the crease will be tough to replicate for untested second-year netminder Hannah Stark of Maple Ridge (UNBC’s backup goalie in 2021) and rookie Brityn Hinche of Williams Lake.
The Timberwolves are coming off a 1-9-2 season and they’re ranked 14th out of 16 in the Canada West preseason coaches’ poll. Being ranked the bottom of the list is no bother to Sedgwick, who fully expects his team to pull off a few surprises on the field, like that did last season when they held the powerful UBC Thunderbirds off the scoreboard for 88 minutes before losing 1-0.
First-year midfielders Sohanna Bains and Morgan Holyk join Emmond as the Prince George connections on the UNBC roster. Emmond’s sister Madison is back as an assistant coach, along with Jo Wankling, helping Sedgwick through his sixth season and seventh year at the helm.
The T-wolves will be in Kamloops on Sunday to face the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack open their home schedule at Masich Place Stadium on Friday, Sept. 9 against the Winnipeg Wesmen, followed by a Sunday, Sept. 11 encounter with the Manitoba Bisons.
The UNBC men (0-1-1) host the Victoria Vikes (0-1-1) in their home-opening games Friday and Satuday (both at 6 p.m.) at Masich Place Stadium. It's a homecoming for Vikes assistant coach Sonny Powar,a Prince George native who coached UNBC for the team's first five seasons.
