“Who said female college students only drink coffee?” Do not imagine the typical image of a female university student with shoulder length wavy hair sitting in front of a sun lit window, legs crossed sipping a cup of Starbucks latte with her pinkie sticking out. Turn your mind instead to a chunky muddy field where fierce warriors in pony tails scramble to dominate the field.
It was in May of last year when Ewha’s first ever soccer club team was established when Professor Lim Eun-joo proposed to her students to try out for the 2008 university women’s soccer club tournament, which has been carried out annually for the last two years by the Korea Football Association (KFA). Kim Hyo-jin (Human Movement Studies, 4) and 18 other girls, most of them majoring in Human Movement Studies, gathered and organized the soccer team. Since May, their passion for soccer, along with an eagerness to win the tournament drove the students to practice three hours per week at the gym in the Physical Education Building. On Saturdays, the team even participated in soccer clinics carried out by the Korea Football Association, where they could receive professional assistance.
“Usually Professor Lim cannot join our workout sessions since she is rarely in town. However, she supports us in every ways she can. So, the workout sessions are normally conducted under the instructions of the team leader, being me, with the skills learnt during Professor Lim’s class,” said Kim. Their workout sessions got even more intense in September when the tournament was just two months away. They used the Athletics track and practiced twice a week for three consecutive hours. Their relentless effort was finally ready to be demonstrated in the tournament. A total of 16 teams from various schools, many of which were women’s university, joined the contest. What’s more, Ewha’s cheerleading team, Pyrus joined the tournament and cheered for the soccer team.
“Other soccer teams that are from Co-Ed universities came with their guy friends who coached them and gave them juicy advice during the game,” said Kim. “Some of us actually envied those students for a moment, but Pyrus’s enormous support made it all go away. Also, the joy during the contest cannot be merely put into words. People played rough and some got injured, but we all had so much fun.”
Since it was their first official game, the results were not as satisfactory as expected, however, the value of their memories are immeasurable. The soccer team will be recruiting new members in March 2009. The team will be participating in more official games and will be managed more enthusiastically and more systematically.
“We faced many hardships last year in practicing, like getting access to the field for practice. However, we are expecting to get more support from both the school and Professor Lim. We hope more and more people participate and in the long term we really hope that there will be more sports team in Ewha,” said Kim. Currently, the team is recruiting freshmen from human movement studies. Interested stduents should prepare for an audition.
