Wednesday, July 6, 2022 — 7
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
From gold medals to Big Ten Championships: Jayde Riviere’s journey
REMI WILLIAMSON
Daily Sports Writer
Athletes strive to be the best.
They want the most touchdowns, the
highest batting average and the most
goals.
But beyond what appears in the stat
sheets, they also want to reach — and
succeed — at the highest level of their
sports. They want to win the Super
Bowl on a hail mary in the fourth
quarter, they want to clinch a World
Series championship and they want
to win at the World Cup in penalty
kicks. Each athlete defines success
differently, and for some athletes,
earning a championship supersedes
personal accolades.
And on the Michigan women’s
soccer team, senior defender Jayde
Riviere
found
success
through
winning. Her championship moment
came with Team Canada at the 2020
Olympics where she earned a gold
medal by defeating Sweden in a match
that was decided by penalty kicks.
For a player to represent their
country on the biggest stage is an
immense honor in itself, but Riviere
took it a step further by succeeding
under the pressure and bringing home
gold.
“I think it was the scariest moment
of my career, considering that it went
to penalties.” Riviere said. “It is a
different kind of fear when you have to
line up knowing you might potentially
have to take a penalty kick.”
But the work to reach that
moment started long ago, and that
championship drive traces through
her career at Michigan.
***
Riviere’s aspirations of being a
soccer star began well before her
college days.
She started playing at three years
old with her father, Tony Riviere,
who was a soccer player for a local
club team. He made sure to get her on
the turf as soon as she could and he
wasted no time showing her
the great joys of the sport.
“He would take me out to
the field every other day to run
drills, ” Jayde said. “I had a
more emotional connection to
the sport because of my dad.”
And that passion blossomed
into Riviere’s love of the sport.
She started her national duties
when she was 15 with the U15
Provincial Team, an experience
that left her with a room full
of medals and trophies to
commemorate her contribution
to her country even before
graduating high school.
And the connection to her
home country played a huge
role in her decision to play with the
Wolverines.
“It is only a four-and-a-half-hour
drive from Pickering,” Riviere said. “It
was important to me that my parents
could come watch games.”
It was important that her parents
— the people who supported her from
the first time she kicked a ball at three
years old — could travel and watch
her develop her game at the collegiate
level. And as the national team called
on her, the game quickly transformed
into something drastically different.
As one of the youngest members
on the national team, Riviere was
moldable, and Canada coach Bev
Priestman shaped her into the player
Canada needed most for the Olympic
Games.
Riviere
willingly
shifted
positions from her natural midfield to
fullback in order to fill those needs. She
even changed positions at Michigan in
order to better prepare for national
team duties when she was called up.
“The national team was in need of a
fullback,” Riviere said. “The more I can
get practice as a fullback at Michigan,
the easier it will be to transition for
international play.”
But to win a championship,
she needed to do more than just
change positions. She had to adapt to
playing with teammates and against
opponents that were faster
and more skilled than those
she knew in Pickering and at
Michigan.
“(The) speed of play and
the experience that comes
with that are really different,”
Riviere said. “I think the biggest
difference for me is going from
a leadership role at Michigan
to being a newbie and trying to
find myself on an international
platform.”
That experience, and her
time with the Wolverines,
showed her how to be a better
athlete.
“Adaptability is a huge thing
when it comes to being an
athlete. Our bodies get put through a
lot, especially at the Olympics,” Riviere
said. “I think learning to adapt to other
teams and how they play is crucial.”
And
as
her
pursuit
of
a
championship forced her to accept
change,
Riviere
embodied
that
mentality. In the end, the Olympic
gold medal that hung around her neck
and the pride of success showed that
her sacrifice was worth it.. Entering
her junior year at Michigan, she had
already proven that her championship
mentality could put hardware in the
trophy case.
***
Coming off that success, Riviere
joined a Michigan program competing
for its own championship. And in that
quest, she played a crucial role.
Riviere was a key pillar to the
Wolverines’ backline, seeing over
1,620 minutes of match time in the
2021-22 season and only ever missing
games for national team duties. In
that role, she led Michigan to a Big
Ten Championship and an NCAA
Quarterfinals appearance.
The experience of that Michigan
team facilitated its success. The
foundation of the Wolverines’ game
was built on the leadership and skills
of their upperclassmen, who filled
every slot in the starting lineup.
Courtesy of the Riviere family
‘Anybody, anytime, anywhere’: Michigan’s roots in Canadian box lacrosse
In just 11 seasons, the Michigan
men’s lacrosse team has rapidly
cemented itself as a competitive
program. As with any Big Ten
sport,
lacrosse’s
identity
stems
from a physicality, intimidation and
grittiness that makes it one of the most
unique lacrosse spaces to play in.
The Wolverines themselves are led
by defense-first coach Kevin Conry,
who prioritizes a commitment to
locking down opposing offenses.
Despite being one of the newest
Division 1 teams, Michigan has
already established its legacy of
defensive prowess.
While
many
associate
the
Wolverines with their defense, this
program has another less noticed
strength: the offensive cutting edge.
Specifically, the cutting edge of
Canadian box lacrosse.
Powered by the likes of Michigan
alumnus attackman Kyle Jackson and
rising senior attackman Josh Zawada,
the Wolverines’ legacy of Canadian
box lacrosse players continues to
play an integral role in the program.
While it may already have deep roots
in Canadian lacrosse, Michigan stands
at the forefront of a growing recruiting
surge of the box style within the
NCAA sphere.
“The game is trying to get into
that hybrid Canadian-American kind
of mix,” Zawada said. “… The big
difference is how unselfish it was in
Canada and how they like moving the
ball so well, and that’s where they get
it in the box game. The game has just
transitioned so much.”
College men’s lacrosse is changing,
and it’s trending northward to do it.
***
In Canada, box lacrosse has long
been the dominant style.
Invented in the early twentieth
century as an indoor alternative to
field lacrosse during cold Canadian
winters, box lacrosse is characterized
by its quick five-on-five style, smaller
field of play and smaller nets.
Sourced from converted ice hockey
rinks, at times, the game can almost
feel like a hockey bout. Unlike field
lacrosse, there is no out-of-bounds,
and the rinks even retain their
patented plexiglass boards to protect
onlookers and to provide the business
end of bone-crunching checks.
Nevertheless, to play box lacrosse
is to simplify the game to its purest
form while also requiring speed
and precision that cannot be found
anywhere else.
For
generations
of
Canadian
lacrosse players, this was a way of life.
But for American coaches and players
just beginning to encounter the style,
it’s a brave new world.
And at the forefront of the
Canadian pioneers bringing the game
south is Ontario’s own: Hill Academy
and its alumni Kyle Jackson and Josh
Zawada.
***
Founded in 2006, the Hill Academy
has had a meteoric ascension to
become one of the elite high school
lacrosse programs in North America.
The program is famous for its
humble beginnings and impressive
international schedule, playing — and
often dismantling — some of the top
teams across North America.
Despite
the
Hill’s
impressive
records, though, Jackson and Zawada
experienced a high school lacrosse
environment unlike any other.
While many traditional lacrosse
players
in
the
United States will
have a stationary,
public or private
high school team
during the academic
year that plays local
teams on a fixed
divisional
circuit,
the
Hill
was
a
school on wheels. It
followed the team’s
patented phrase:
Anybody,
anytime, anywhere.
“Josh
never
played a home game
when he was at the
Hill Academy,” Josh’s father, John,
said. “He lived on a bus and they would
play all the top teams out of Maryland,
in all the storied programs that have a
super rich history of top talent in the
country. And the Hill Academy spent a
week playing all those top teams, and
that was just part of it.”
Canadian box lacrosse players like Josh Zawada and Kyle
Jackson have had a major impact on the Michigan men’s lacrosse
program.
KATE HUA/Daily
SOCCER
LACROSSE
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JOHN TONDORA
Daily Sports Writer
Read more at michigandaily.com