The date was October 19, 2011. The women’s soccer team, hosting Bryn Mawr College, was up 4-0 with just two minutes left to play in the second half. Then, an assisted strike found the back of the net. Tears filled the sidelines. Lady Fords jumped with joy through the slushy grass at Walton Field. A mob of white jerseys rushed the penalty box. Lindsay Ryan ’12 had scored her first collegiate goal.

 “Sophie [Eiger] and the other girls worked so hard to get the ball down the field,” Ryan said. “I was just at the right place at the right time.”

A chemistry major and education minor, Ryan says that her soccer experience at Haverford has been incredible. She wouldn’t have preferred to play on any other team. It was the team cohesion and unity that made four seasons of varsity soccer at Haverford so enjoyable.

“I’ve just learned so much about being a great human being through playing soccer,” said Ryan. “It’s hard not to, since there’s so many nice people training with me every day; and everyone’s working so hard—everyone wants the team to succeed. It’s no wonder that our best games are when we play for each other, not for ourselves. That’s something I want to carry on with me throughout life.  You have to be selfless if you want your team to succeed. So, you have to be selfless through life as well.”

Currently an Upperclassmen Advisor as part of Haverford’s ‘customs’ program, Ryan has dreams after graduation of becoming a pediatrician. She plans to attend medical school within the next few years, but would first like to travel and teach around the world.

“I was studying abroad in Barbados for five months [last spring]. I learned so much from one little place. I just think about how many places there are in the world and I want to see them all. And meet all the people.”

Another recent traveling highlight for Ryan was the soccer team’s training trip in Brazil. Soccer is “the world’s game,” she explains. She was touched by the waves of people that cared so much about watching a small Division III school play soccer. The sport is a tradition that thousands of cultures across the globe hold close to their hearts. That’s why Ryan hopes to be a representative for the charitable Grassroot Soccer (GRS) organization, a nonprofit company that uses soccer as a “universal language” and the power of the sport to “educate, inspire, and mobilize communities to stop the spread of HIV.” The vision of the organization: “a world mobilized through soccer to create an AIDS-free generation.”

Here is the company’s approach: “GRS realized that the true power of soccer has always been connections that it creates between people. Using footballers as role models, and using the popularity of soccer to engage hard to reach young people, GRS has combined social theory, public health methodologies, rigorous evaluation and a huge dose of passion.”
Ryan is currently working on receiving a teaching fellowship in certain countries that have GRS programs. Those places include South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Sudan, Tanzania, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.

- Jordan Schilit ’13
Haverford SAAC

SAAC is the college’s student-athlete advisory committee, which discusses issues that affect the well-being of Haverford’s student-athletes on campus and within the Centennial Conference and the NCAA. For more information, please check out the SAAC web site.