A Guelph soccer player is taking her talents to Hawaii.
Goalkeeper Courtney Linn is one of 12 new recruits for the women's soccer program at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, a NCAA Division II school.
The 18-year-old St. James Catholic High School grad has put on plenty of mileage since her early days of playing house league in Guelph at five years old.
There, she dabbled a bit as a goaltender, then was recruited onto a local rep team. But the decision on her position came to a head when she moved on to the Athlete Institute in Mono.
"I was the only goalie, so I kind of got forced into the position, which I'm not complaining about," she told GuelphToday with a laugh.
She's come to love the position, one that takes a lot of communication skills, leadership and in her words, "a different personality."
"It does take a different personality and person to step in front of a ball that's being drilled at you," Linn added when asked what she liked about the position.
"It challenges you in a different way. Obviously, you have to be fit and strong, but you also have to be extremely mentally strong as well cause you're making decisions that need to be done in a split second."
There's also something to be said about the mental toughness it takes to constantly commute to and from practices and games.
She began playing in the Ontario Player Development League at the age of 13 with North Mississauga, later transferred to North Toronto and ended up in the last couple years with the Toronto Blizzard, a girls soccer scholarship academy.
In between that, she was also called up to play in League1 Ontario a few times.
"It was a lot," she said when talking about the constant travel.
"I was getting home late at night. I was eating on the road. I'd come home from school, grab my soccer stuff, leave, eat, sleep, have practice and then do homework on the way back."
The pandemic did hinder development and opportunities for the Blizzard to go down to the United States, meet coaches and play games.
They did eventually get to play at Cornell and Dartmouth a couple months ago, but like many athletes in pandemic times, much of the scouting and recruiting process involved sending video footage to potential coaches.
Linn was able to have conversations with a number of schools.
"They were all awesome schools, but I really wanted to go for marine biology, so my options (were) slimmed down," she said.
Her recruiting coach ended up getting her in touch with Gene Okamura, the head coach of the university team in Hawaii.
Initially, it wasn't going to work, citing financial reasons, she said. But when the opportunity came back up for Linn, things were better, and she was able to make the commitment for the 2022-23 season.
"The coach is awesome," she said. "Coach Gene is very nice. He's almost like a second dad with the ladies down there. The team's very welcoming. It's been, so far, a really good opportunity and experience, even though I haven't been down there yet."
Her and her family is heading over early next month, ahead of Linn's first practices with her new team, the Vulcans.
The team is coming off its first-ever appearance in the NCAA national championship tournament last season.
Linn will look to be a part of the program's next step forward, as she embarks on a new journey while majoring in marine sciences.
"It didn't come easy," she said. "It's a lot of work, and it was a lot of work from my parents too, so I appreciate their help.
"We did a lot of research, so it was a lot of hours on the computer, then there was also a lot of hours of driving back-and-forth from practices and games, and then me doing the work to get there, so training, working hard and just pushing through any obstacles I had.
"Obviously, there's some setbacks in life, and then we move forward, and I think I did well with what was handed to me and I'm very proud of myself and excited to have this opportunity and see where it takes me."
