Former Canada fullback Rhian Wilkinson takes another step on her young coaching career in November at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Uruguay.
The 36-year-old native of Baie-D’Urfe, Que., who now calls North Vancouver home, is seen as a future Canadian women’s national coach. She was on Bev Priestman’s coaching staff at the CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship, where Canada finished third to book its ticket to the World Cup.
But Priestman subsequently left the Canadian Soccer Association to become an assistant coach with the English women’s team, with Wilkinson taking over the team for the 16-team Uruguay tournament that runs Nov. 13 to Dec. 1.
Canada opens Group D play against Colombia on Nov. 14 in Montevideo’s Estadio Charrua before taking on South Korea on Nov. 17 and Spain on Nov. 21. It’s a tough group, with Spain having done well recently in the age group. Altitude will also be a factor.
The 21-player Canadian roster features four players who have already been called up by the senior side: Jordyn Huitema, Jayde Riviere, Maya Antoine and Ariel Young. Huitema is a regular while the other three have been called into different camps.
Wilkinson wants the four not to feel the pressure of their senior credentials.
“I just need them to play the game that’s gotten them senior team experience — that joy and that love of living on the ball,” she said in an interview. “It’s a good team and they’re obviously four important parts, but the whole team is very exciting.”
Wilkinson, whose first name is pronounced Ree-in, has also served as an assistant to senior women’s coach Kenneth Heiner-Moller, as a youth assistant coach and coached Canada at the recent CONCACAF Girls”Under-15 Championship.
“It’s been crazy, a lot of it,” she said. “But so much experience. (It’s) amazing, actually.”
She started worked on her coaching badges while still playing, paying out of her pocket to get her UEFA B licence in Wales. Then-senior coach John Herdman, looking to use veteran players as mentors, made her an assistant coach with the Canada entry at the 2014 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
With the help of Canada Soccer, she is currently working on her UEFA A coaching licence.
Interestingly, Wilkinson had no interest in coaching for a long time.
“I was really interested in becoming a teacher, a professor,” she said. “Both my parents were. But I was given opportunity. And that’s the amazing part of it. I just said yes to opportunity and then started to really really enjoy it.
“It is teaching — just a different form. And that’s what I love about it.”
Canada earned its spot at the U-17 World Cup after a dramatic 2-1 win over Haiti in the match for third place at the CONCACAF Women’s U-17 Championship in Florida. Calgary striker Andersen Williams scored the winning goal in the 89th minute in the match for third place.
The competition lasted six games in April in Nicaragua before CONCACAF, the governing body of soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean, pulled the plug due to violence in the capital city Managua. Play resumed some 45 days later in Florida.
“Definitely nothing had prepared me for that U-17 experience in Nicaragua and Florida,” Wilkinson said. “So I feel like I learned a lot in a very short amount of time.”
Wilkinson has never shied away from a challenge.
After winning bronze at the Rio Olympics, she ran the Montreal marathon and crewed a yacht in the Mediterranean. After the 2015 Women’s World Cup, she walked part of the famed Camino de Santiago trail in Spain with her mother.
“A lot of times when I do public speaking I talk to people about living in that uncomfortable space and pushing their boundaries. I hadn’t done that for a while,” Wilkinson, speaking in a 2017 interview with The Canadian Press, said of the marathon.
“At the end of my soccer career I personally wasn’t pushing any boundaries. I had this opportunity to run the marathon. Why sign up for a 10-k if I’m telling other people to push boundaries? So I went for it. I jumped in.”
Wilkinson stepped on the field for the last time for Canada in a February 2017 friendly against Mexico at B.C. Place Stadium, capping a 14-year career that saw her win 181 caps and make 150 starts.
Wilkinson played under three vastly different national team coaches in Norway’s Even Pellerud, Italy’s Carolina Morace and England’s Herdman.
“I’ve had really good mentors but they’re all very very different,” said Wilkinson, including her club coaches and Heiner-Moller.
Wilkinson has a BA in communications from the University of Tennessee and a degree in anatomy and physiology from Athabasca University. She has served as a member of the FIFA Strategic Committee, tasked with dealing with “global strategies for football and its political, economic and social status.”
Canada is one of only six countries to have qualified for every edition of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup since its launch in 2008, alongside Germany, Ghana, Japan, New Zealand and North Korea.
Canada reached the quarterfinals in 2008, 2012 and 2014.
Canada U17 World Cup Roster
Goalkeepers: Anna Karpenko, Richmond Hill, Ont., Ontario REX; Sophie Guilmette, Montreal, Quebec REX & Lakeshore SC; Kayza Massey, Ottawa, Ontario REX.
Defenders: Julianne Vallerand, Terrebonne, Que., Quebec REX & AS Varennes; Sonia Walk, Toronto, Ontario REX; Maya Antoine, Vaughan, Ont., Ontario REX; Ariel Young, Ottawa, Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite REX; Leonie Portelance, Brossard, Que.; Quebec REX & AS Varennes; Jade Rose, Markham, Ont., Ontario REX; Isabella Hanisch, Ottawa, Ontario REX
Midfielders: Caitlin Shaw, Vancouver, Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite REX; Lara Kazandjian, Kirkland, Que., Quebec REX & Lakeshore SC; Wayny-Natasha Balata Nguenign, Montreal, Quebec REX & Lakeshore SC; Jazmine Wilkinson, Nanaimo, B.C., Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite REX.
Forwards: Jayde Riviere, Markham, Ont., Ontario REX; Serita Thurton, Ajax, Ont.; Ontario REX; Jordyn Huitema, Chilliwack, B.C., Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite REX; Oluwateniola (Teni) Akindoju, Halifax, Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite REX; Kaila Novak, St. Thomas, Ont., Ontario REX; Andersen Williams, Calgary, Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite REX; Jessica De Filippo, Montreal, Quebec REX & Lakeshore SC.