Pickering soccer star commits to Brown University on scholarship
Published February 16, 2022 at 10:10 am
A budding soccer star from Pickering whose resume was already jam-packed with press clippings and accomplishments by the time she was 15, has taken another big step forward by committing to a scholarship to the hallowed Ivy League halls of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Naya Cardoza, a striker with Woodbridge United last season in Ontario League 1 -the top level of amateur soccer in the province – has been filling the opposing net with goals for her entire career. She scored 12 in just 11 games in 2021 for Woodbridge and sniped 26 in 21 games in 2019 while a member of Durham United.
The 12-month period between September 2018 and 2019 was a particularly impressive period for Cardoza. She made the Ontario Provincial Team for starters; she won the Ontario Development League Charity Shield; she was a US Futsal Nationals finalist; a Gatorade 5v5 Canadian champion (which qualified her and her teammates for the World Gatorade 5v5 Championships in Spain); and she made the Academic Honour Roll.
The list certainly had her father Dan pause for thought, as he had this to say on social media at the time: “What was I doing at 14? Proud of you, kid.”
Of all those accomplishments, however, it might be the last one that will put Cardoza in good stead at Brown, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the United States.
A career as a professional soccer player is fraught with uncertainty, now matter how talented the player. But a degree from Brown? Priceless.
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