soccer – The Oberlin Review

The U.S. Women’s National Team Deserves Your Undivided Attention

February 14, 2020

This Winter Term, while watching the United States Women’s National Soccer Team game, we became simultaneously filled with pride for our team and couldn’t wait to don a USWNT jersey — printed with the name of any one of those fabulous players — and flaunt it front row at a primetime televised game. We allowed ourselves to be swept up in the frenzy of support for the future of women’s sports. The USWNT ultimately won the game against Costa Rica, as part of the Olympic qualifying tourname...

Grace Hayes, Second-Year Dual-Athlete

February 7, 2020

College second-year Grace Hayes is a member of not one, but two varsity sports teams. Hayes has competed with the soccer team for the past two years. After seeing a significant increase in playing time on the soccer field in her second year, Hayes recently decided to join track. Despite having only been on the track team for a few months, she has found early success, and has already run the fourth fastest 60-meter time in the North Coast Athletic Conference and been named the NCAC Women’s Sprints/Hur...

Actors Train Like Athletes for Upcoming Production of The Wolves

November 15, 2019

Students will don their soccer uniforms and sneakers and warm-up before taking to the stage — not the field — in the upcoming Oberlin Theater Association production The Wolves. For plays and films about sports, actors often take on the persona of an athlete, regardless of whether they have previous athletic experience. This requires intense physical preparation and devotion to learning the craft of the sport that they hope to portray. The play’s nine characters are all members o...

In The Locker Room with Jack McMilllin, Fourth-Year Varsity Soccer Player

November 8, 2019

College fourth-year Jack McMillin’s ex-perience at Oberlin College has been, in a word, multifaceted. Not only has he found success on the field playing as a starting midfielder for the men’s soccer team, he is also graduating with a Creative Writing major and Africana Studies and Studio Art minors. Having been born and raised in Oberlin, OH, McMillin has been involved with the men’s soccer team from a young age. But looking beyond his college career, McMillin hopes to be able to w...

Leo Ross and Bethany Gen, Queer Varsity Athletes

September 13, 2019

Varsity basketball player Leo Ross and varsity soccer player Bethany Gen, both College third-years, have been dating for the past ten months. The two athletes met while working as Preventing and Responding to Sexual Misconduct trainers, a program designed to educate students on combating gender-based discrimination and sexual violence. Throughout their relationship, they have navigated their position as queer Oberlin students, with the added layer of being queer varsity athletes. Their relationsh...

Reflections on Rejection, Soccer, and Life After Oberlin

Julie Schreiber, Senior Staff Writer

May 24, 2019

Earlier this year, I applied for a fellowship from the Watson Foundation, an institution that provides yearlong fellowship that gifts recent college graduates $30,000 to travel the world studying a topic of their choice. About a month before I heard back, I had my first dream about it. It’s probably better described as a nightmare, actually. I walked down a hallway plastered with pictures of the 40 Watson winners from six different countries — my task was to scan every square inch of the walls, searching for photographic confirmation that I had indeed been one of the chosen. I did not see my face. A few nights later, I dreamed that I arrived sorely underdressed to the Watson group interview — an even...

Son Heung-min Weighs in on England’s Race Debate

Jane Agler, Sports Editor

May 3, 2019

If you are familiar with my previous sports columns, then you are well aware that I am a huge fan of Tottenham Hotspur winger Son Heung-min — in spite of my die-hard allegiance to Arsenal FC. My affinity for Son is controversial, to say the least, but makes sense given my own South Korean identity. As a Korean-American viewer, it is exciting to watch a Korean athlete succeed on the pitch. But in some ways, his success is equally as disheartening due to the negative — and racist — attention it receives. On January 14, Tottenham launched an investigation after a fan tweeted that other Tottenham fans had acted “hideous[ly]” during a match, directing racist comments and chants toward their very own K...

Megan Rapinoe Leads the Race for Women’s Rights in Sports

Julie Schreiber, Senior Staff Writer

March 15, 2019

If you’re in search of a hero during Women’s History Month, look no further than Megan Rapinoe. As one of the most important players on the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, Rapinoe played a big role at the 2015 World Cup in Canada, where the United States won it all with a victory over Japan. She was also instrumental in the United States winning the gold medal in women’s soccer at the 2012 London Olympics. At the same time, she has emerged as one of the boldest, most outspoken and justice-driven athletes in modern sports. No list of trailblazing female athletes is complete without her name at the top of it. On the field, Rapinoe’s presence is hard to miss. As a forward, she scores her fair shar...

Hooliganism Spoils Soccer Match in Argentina

Julie Schreiber, Senior Staff Writer

November 30, 2018

Following weeks of hype and buildup, the highly-anticipated soccer game that was supposed to take place in Argentina Saturday, Nov. 24, was canceled after hooliganism took the stage. The two teams are the River Plate and Boca Juniors, and together they make up quite possibly the most divisive social force in all of Argentina — although both hail from Buenos Aires, approximately 70 percent of the entire nation supports either River or Boca. The two teams have competed against one another numerous times throughout their 105-year rivalry, but never in a championship match. Saturday was to be their first, as they battled for the trophy of the Copa Libertadores, the most prestigious club competition in South Ame...

Germany Does Not Have World Cup Locked Down

Jane Agler, Staff Writer

May 11, 2018

The biggest sporting event in the world is finally here. People from all around the globe will be tuning in on June 14 for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, where 32 national teams will compete for international glory. Germany — the team that clinched the Cup back in 2014 — is still a favorite, but if the qualifying tournament showed us anything, the World Cup is still going to be full of surprises. Right now, there are only a handful of nations that seem to pose a strong threat. Germany, who will compete with much of the same roster as they did in 2014 — with noteworthy exceptions like Bastian Schweinsteiger and Philipp Lahm — is likely the most intimidating team to arrive in Russia. Following in their wake...

Arsenal FC Loses Wenger, Manager of 22 Years

Jane Agler, Staff Writer

April 27, 2018

After 22 years of managing Arsenal Football Club and providing the club with some of its most successful and memorable years to date, the sun is finally setting on Arsène Wenger’s career. Last week, Wenger announced to the public that he was leaving the club after the season finishes, marking the end of one of the most well-known managerial careers of all time. Regardless of the discourse revolving around his departure — much of which centered on whether his leave was overdue — it is necessary to sing the praises of a man who did so much for English and international soccer during one of the last tenured managerial careers seen today. When crunching the numbers, Wenger’s success is obvious. He managed 1,229 ga...

Gardiner Leaves Yeowomen After Program Turnaround, Successful 67-Game Career

December 1, 2017

Gwennie Gardiner wears a ribbon in every single one of her soccer games. It’s for good luck. However, she probably didn’t need it when she scored her fourth goal of the game at the 22:30 mark of Oberlin’s 8–0 dismantling of the Geneva College Golden Tornadoes on her way to the program’s first United Soccer Coaches’ National Player of the Week award in September. She has long since traded her ribbon for a Yeowomen’s Soccer sweatshirt after playing her last game on Oct. 28. Of course...