GC&SU attracts transfers

There are 825 miles of highway between Plymouth, Michigan and Milledgeville, Georgia, but the gap can feel much larger.

This fall, four girls from a little south of Detroit have crossed over to the deep South. All four will be playing for GC&SU’s Lady Bobcats soccer team.

Natalie Thomas, Arielle Bryant, Lindsey Stiver and Sarah Plymale are juniors who transferred to GC&SU this year from Schoolcraft College, a junior college near their hometown.

The four girls started out as high school rivals, playing for two opposing teams. They became teammates when they started their college careers at Schoolcraft.

Now, all four share a house on Lake Sinclair. Their friendship is slowly growing, but one must wonder: How did four girls from the Midwest wind up in Middle Georgia?

Plymale started it all.

Schoolcraft is a two-year college, so Plymale and others on the team began to look for universities where they could finish their bachelor’s degrees. This spring, she contacted soccer coach Robert Parr and visited GC&SU.

“After seeing the place, [Plymale] committed, basically, on the spot,” Parr said.

Plymale went back to Schoolcraft and got the other girls interested. Parr looked over their resumes and talked to colleagues who had had the opportunity to see the girls play for Schoolcraft College.

Finally, after enrolling and going through the transfer advisement process from a time zone away, Stiver, Bryant, Plymale and Thomas made the long trip to Milledgeville.

Now they plan on finishing their bachelor’s degrees at GC&SU and later seeking master’s degrees. Bryant is confident and ambiguous, about her future.

“I know I want to help people, I just don’t know how I’m going to do it.”

With a double major in sociology and accounting, Bryant has already made a good start toward that goal.

Parr does not actively recruit older players for the Bobcats, who are only in their second year as a team, but he is happy to have the girls here.

Parr values the skills the Schoolcraft girls bring with them.

“It’s nice to have a few players…who can bring that experience,” Parr said.

So, what has the transition been like for these players, not only from one school and team to another, but from one part of the country to another?

Bryant said that she enjoyed the climate change and was excited about milder winters.

What about the move away from family and friends? All college students experience this to some degree.

Is it easier now, since the girls are older? Stiver and Thomas seemed a little unsure about the big move.

“Scary,” Natalie said.

Lindsey complained about the challenges of moving all of her possessions.

Bryant is a little more confident. She knows she is better prepared now, at 21, than she was when she first went to Schoolcraft.

“[As a freshman,] just going to school and leaving home is hard,” Bryant said.

Like the rest of GC&SU’s first-year students, the girls are still making friends and adjusting to their new surroundings.

As practice ends and the players leave the field, the girls from Michigan have their own short strategy meeting. They’re deciding whether to go out to eat or cook dinner tonight.

The girls seem to have the comfort level of roommates; they talk easily.

For now, it seems they have each other to provide the familiarity that will smooth the transition, all 825 miles of it.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 9 2005. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry