Sica a natural leader
Sydney Sica was a natural selection to head up the leadership group of the St. Catharines Club Roma Wolves women’s team.
The 23-year-old Niagara Falls native was named co-captain along with Kasia Bak thanks both to abilities on the field and extensive experience.
“She brings maturity,” Roma director of soccer operations Carmine Provenzano said. “She’s really solidified us off and on the field. When situations get bad, she’s the calming person that gets us back on track.”
Provenzano said when Sica speaks, the Wolves listen.
“She’s got a good voice. You hear the coaches all the time but hearing it from a player, from a captain, somebody with maturity who calms the players down, they understand that the captain is talking, it really helps,” he said. “It’s great to have on the field.”
Sica had no problem accepting the additional responsibility.
“It was a bit of a surprise at first but there’s a few of us older ones with experience — we are quite a young team — so it did make sense for us to support them throughout the season and bring them towards working together as a team,” Sica said. “A lot of us haven’t actually played together before. Kasia and I are a little older, a little more experienced and help bring that team confidence and team spirit together so we can work together and hopefully have a successful season.”
A graduate of Saint Michael Catholic High School, Sica played one season at Ryerson, two at Brock, and is heading into her second year at Niagara College where she fill finish up her athletic eligibility this fall.
All those experiences have taught Sica confidence is key.
“If someone is feeling down or someone is having a bad game, you want to bring them up,” she said. “You don’t want to bring the team down. You want them to know I’m there to support you. Everyone makes mistakes. Soccer is never a perfect game. There’s going to be 1,000 mistakes and everyone needs to understand that and you don’t ever want to see a player brought down because they made a mistake, even if it led to a goal.
“It’s impossible to never get scored on the entire season so whether it’s the goalie, or the midfield, or the forwards, it the entire team that led to the breakdown.”
Sica, who plans a career in nursing, loves playing for the Wolves.
“Getting experience at League1 level is preparing me for the OCAA (Ontario Colleges Athletic Association) level and then I’ll come back here the next season and hopefully be even better,” she said.
The Wolves improved to 6-5 with a 5-0 win over Tecumseh Sunday afternoon at Roma.
Arianna Zumpano had two goals while Ashley Altamirano, Sabrina Bissante and Luisa Argento added singles.
Emma Hendrie earned the shutout playing 87 of the 90 minutes. Salena Kumar came on for three minutes in relief.
“It was a great performance today and it’s going to springboard us in the second half of the season for sure,” Provenzano said. “That’s a big win for us. It gets us to a point out of a playoff spot and that’s our goal and we’re going to keep going in that direction.
“We’re excited. We want to make it into the playoffs and then anything can happen.”
Coach Lucio Ianiero loved the execution.
“We’ve been building up to this game with some specific sessions about possession and positional play and I think we saw that come out in the game today.
“I was totally proud of the girls how they played. We just have to keep going with that mentality and that philosophy moving forward.
The Wolves play again Wednesday at home when they host Unionville Milliken SC at 8:45 p.m.
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