Third-year striker looking to score on every opportunity
Forwards in soccer, also called strikers, are recognized for their offensive role and scoring abilities. Sarah Humes is the striker with a great goal-scoring ability on the Concordia Stingers women’s soccer team.
“She’s strong, she’s fast and she’s got great abilities,” said head coach Greg Sutton about Humes. “She’s been someone we have relied on in the season.”
Midfielder-turned-forward, Humes is in her third year with the team. The Pointe-Claire native played 11 games in her first year with the Stingers as a midfielder, recording one goal. She explained how her coaches saw her in a more offensive role.
“I definitely started my career more as a winger,” Humes said. “Then, I’ve kind of moved to the striker position. I think it’s something that my coaches noticed. I have height and the strength, so I’m able to foil up the defenders. It’s just been a better fit for me.”
For the Stingers’s head coach, Humes’s game style corresponded perfectly to a striker. “Her skillset is around the goal,” Sutton said. “It’s not so much setting players up and keeping position, it’s finishing plays off. I think she’s a typical nine as far as being a big, strong forward. [She] gets around the goal and finishes with her head and with her feet.”
In soccer, the term “typical nine” refers to the traditional striker of the team and is usually given to players in that position. That’s why, this year, Humes is wearing the number-nine shirt rather than the number 12 from the last two seasons.
For Sutton, Humes is more than an ordinary striker. “She’s probably one of the most dangerous strikers in our league,” Sutton said. “She’s an ideal striker.”
In 14 games last season, Humes scored five goals and finished in the top-10 scoring in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ). This season, the forward had five goals in 14 games, tied for most goals scored on the team.
“I think it’s been a lot harder to find opportunities on net this year,” Humes said. “It’s really important to capitalize when I do get [scoring opportunities]. I think being consistent is important for this team because we don’t necessarily get a lot of chances in every game, so it’s really important to score when you do.”
Sutton said Humes always puts herself in good positions on the field. “She’s a good finisher,” the head coach said. “She will really test the goalkeepers with the chances she will have.”
According to the striker, being a student-athlete takes a lot of time and organization, but is something that ends up being beneficial.
“There’s a lot of demands, especially during the fall season,” Humes said. “However, I think it’s actually helpful to have soccer, school and work because it keeps me busy. It doesn’t give me time to waste. I know that I can do my homework as soon as I have free time, and, as soon as I finish practice, I head back to school.”
While going to practice is one of the many tasks she juggles, the forward said it’s the activity she enjoys the most.
“We just had our last practice, and it’s a bit of a sad feeling to know that we won’t see each other every single day, but we know the year is not over,” Humes said on Oct. 18. The Stingers’s season finished Oct. 21.
“It was a year with a lot of changes,” Humes said. “It’s been interesting, but a really fun year.”
Sutton added that the Stingers are pleased with Humes’s dedication. The program hopes to gain more talented players that can help Humes improve her game.
“Her attitude is great and her work is awesome,” Sutton said. “Now we just have to do a good job at surrounding her with some more talent in the next years. Hopefully we can get even more production out of her in that way.”
The Stingers concluded the 2018-19 RSEQ campaign with a 4-9-1 record, in sixth position in the league.
Main photo by Gabe Chevalier.
