OUTLOOK - To reach the pinnacle of your chosen sport, you have to be prepared to put in the hard work, the tireless dedication, the long hours, and the gritty, intestinal fortitude to ensure that success comes your way by the time the last play is carried out in the game.
With her recent achievement, Lauren Vye of Outlook has reached that stage and is ready to take the ball and run with it - literally, if the opportunity should present itself.
The football player, originally from New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, is looking forward to the journey that awaits her and her teammates at the end of July, when they'll travel to Vantaa in Finland and represent Canada at the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Women's World Championship. The event serves as the pinnacle of the sport and will see teams joining Canada from the USA, Finland, Mexico, Sweden, Australia, Germany, and Great Britain.
The opportunity to make an incredible impact at the world level is staring Vye in the face right now, and it's something that wouldn't have been possible had she not been searching for more sport options back home years ago.
"I was playing back east originally," said Lauren, talking with The Outlook at a neighborhood coffee stop. "I was looking for something a little more competitive than just adult rec league basketball, which was really all I had access to in Fredericton, and I happened to run across some newspaper print articles in a gym office about a young lady playing women's football for Team Canada. I felt like that was something that I'd like to try, and so my spouse very much encouraged me to do it, so I went out to a tryout and learned they were holding one at the gymnasium. I was a receiver back east and so the first pass they threw to me, I caught it deep one-handed and just went, 'Oh! This game's all right, let's do this!'"
After ending up on a team that would play against Saskatchewan, it would end up being a funny situation when Lauren eventually found herself teaming with some of the same women that she first played against.
"I ended up being asked during my first year out there to play on the provincial team, and I came out to Nationals that were hosted in Regina in 2016," she said. "I played there against Team Saskatchewan and against many of the girls that I am teammates with now, which today is pretty funny! I remember my first practice with the Valkyries, I just kept hearing, 'Who's that? Oh, that's Team New Brunswick!' because I had my New Brunswick bag. I just really loved that it was so honestly competitive. I was missing that competitive edge to a sport because that's something I've always had. In football, if you're not going 110 miles an hour, you're getting hurt or you're getting put on the bench, so it's really enjoyable to be a part of that."
What Vye gets out of the sport, on top of the physical gameplay, is the emotional connection that she now has with her teammates. Over time, these people become so much more than just another number on the field.
"As much as I enjoy the contact of it, it's the family aspect of it," said Lauren. "You really do feel like you have a family and people to lean on. I know people in almost every field of business through football. It's really interesting to see the far reaches of the football family and how much it truly is a family, and how you're treated that way on the team."
Lauren's experience on the gridiron, which includes stints with the Fredericton Lady Gladiators, Team New Brunswick, and the Saskatoon Valkyries, has helped shape her into the athlete that she is today. Now, excited to don a jersey for Team Canada, she says the feeling is only just starting to sink in over what these upcoming games truly mean.
"I just found out a week ago today, actually," she said, on when she found out that she was headed to Finland as part of the team. "It's only just starting to sink in, I think. I've had a chance to talk to my family and close friends about it, and the idea of representing your country and having that name across your chest and the whole nine yards; it's a really surreal feeling. When you step back and think that it's not just that you're wearing Team Canada, you're competing at the world level with other countries that you're competing against. This is the pinnacle for women's football at this point in time, so it's a very surreal feeling to be able to try and step back and think about it on that scale."
Lauren and her teammates will leave on or around July 20, set for a week-long training camp in Finland in order to help get over the jetlag and timezone differences. The world championship tournament itself will begin on July 28 and run until August 8. Vye has been busy training, with her and teammates hitting the gym often before it's time to make preparations for their global trip. The team is also raising money for their adventure as each player is responsible for $4000 each to pay for flights, meals and accommodations. You can support the team by visiting the following link: http://www.gofundme.com/f/team-canada-fundraiser-valks-edition
Without a doubt, and without any form of hesitation, Lauren knows this is the biggest stage she will ever reach in the sport of football. Knowing what's on the line, she says she isn't taking the opportunity for granted and she's going to embrace whatever is in store for her and her team.
"Absolutely," she quickly said with a big smile. "At this point in time, there is no level higher than this. It's not involved in the Olympics, the men's game isn't even involved in the Olympics, so that would probably be the only other closest pinnacle that you could reach that's higher than this. This is absolutely going to be a lifetime highlight for me, let alone a sports career highlight. Right now, I'm feeling mostly excitement, but I'm sure once it gets closer, it'll start hitting some nerves. I'm generally not a very nervous person when it comes to football, but I'm sure this is going to be a whole different ball game, so the nerves will probably kick in once we step in the airport. There's no turning back once we're on that plane!"
