Moving into a dorm for your first-year of university is daunting enough for an 18-year-old. Sara McManus will make that major transition in her life as a member of the national women's field hockey team preparing for its biggest tournament in four years.
The Tsawwassen teen was the youngest player named to the 16-member Canadian squad for the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, Oct. 14-30. At stake is not only a gold medal but an automatic berth into the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. Last week's roster announcement culminates a remarkable 24 months for the recent South Delta secondary graduate who was invited to her first senior national camp dur-ing the early weeks of her Grade 11 year.
McManus split her time between the national junior and senior programs before eventually turning all her attention to the latter and blossoming from a promising prospect to a roster player.
"I was definitely a little bit timid at first and it showed in the way I was playing," recalled McManus of her early days with the senior team when she was just 16. "Eventually I just got more comfortable and the pressure came off of me while my confidence grew.
I really didn't know what was going to happen (with the final roster) but with a couple of injuries it started to get a little more clearer.
It's very exciting."
Her status as full-time national team player was perhaps quicker than expected but was part of her long term goals when she reviewed her post-secondary options months earlier.
As one of the top graduating high school players in the country, McManus had plenty of options on both sides of the border, including lucrative scholarship offers from NCAA schools. Instead, she choose to stay close to home at UBC where the national team happens to train on a regular basis. She even planned her first semester course load appropriately, taking only three classes this fall in anticipation of the Pan Am Games. She will increase her workload to five classes for her second semester.
"If I had played for an American school they would have never given me the time off to come back home to train with the national team and then go to the Games," said McManus. "I have taken some courses that gives me some flexibility (to miss some classes). Everything has worked out."
McManus will be training with the national team five days a week, leading up to its departure for Mexico. Argentina is the pre-tournament favourite with Canada seeded fourth, after finishing fifth at the 2007 Games. Only three players return from that team.
"It's definitely going to be a difficult task but we are going there with high expectations expecting to win," added McManus.
Meanwhile, McManus' longtime high school and junior national teammate Shannon Herold has wasted little time in making an impact at Stanford University in her freshman season.
Herold cracked the starting line-up and drew an assist in the Cardinals 4-3 season-opening victory over Hofstra at the Husky Invitational at the University of Connecticut. She also earned a helper as the 20th ranked Cardinals fell 4-2 to No. 4 Connecticut on Monday.
