Natalie Boydston / Staff Photographer / nb397205@ohiou.edu

Ohio University defender Rachael Goulding (2) keeps the ball away from Lisa Mair (17) during a game against Northern Illinois on September 29, 2006. The Bobcats fell 0-1. Goulding, along with teammate Jasmine Merith, brought her talents to Ohio from Canada.

When coaches talk about going to Canada to scout potential recruits, the average sports fan assumes they’re going to watch hockey.

This year, the Ohio soccer program found a pair of talented players from our northern neighbor. Forward Jasmine Merith and defender Rachael Goulding, both from Ontario, have had an effect this season for the Bobcats, each scoring two goals thus far.

Before coming here, both suited up for the Vaughan Azzurri soccer club back home and traveled to California, Florida and Las Vegas to play. The pair started the recruiting process, meeting with and playing for coaches. Unlike in America, Canadian colleges do not award athletic scholarships.

Merith said she discovered Ohio was where she wanted to be even though many schools expressed interest.

“After my official visit, I realized I loved the campus, the people, everything,” she said.

Despite having known each other before sporting the green and white, Goulding said playing college soccer together wasn’t necessarily a given.

“It just so happened that we chose to come to the same place,” she said. “We told each other afterwards that we were both going to come here.”

After making a decision, however, the pair still had to make the adjustment to college life. Merith said the way athletics are viewed in the U.S. is foreign to her.

“Here they have high school and their club team to build upon, so they have two different teams they’re working with,” she said. “For us, it was all our club team, so we were basically a family.”

Merith added that the atmosphere is different, too.

“I feel the community a lot more (here),” she said. “Between the different athletes watching your game and people on the street telling you they watched your game, that’s just something I’ve never had before.”

Another thing the two haven’t had before is time away from their families. With Canadian Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October, Ohio’s long winter break doesn’t make family gatherings easy. Goulding said her family has been forced to get creative to see her play.

“Two weekends ago my parents went to the games in Michigan because it’s half the drive to here,” she said. “They ended up coming and staying the weekend.”

While the two dabbled in other sports growing up, they directed most of their attention to their club team because of a lack of emphasis on Canadian high school athletics. And while focusing on soccer year-round seems difficult with the harsh Canadian winters, the tandem has the answer — an indoor facility and a good snow shovel.

“My fondest memory of our winter games was one time we had to come out and shovel the field before we played on it,” Merith said. “Shoveling was basically our warm-up.”

The experience, however, leaves behind no icy memories.

“Our coaches were great,” Goulding said. “They weren’t even like coaches; they were like our fathers. The connection between the girls on the field was like none other.”