I've written a couple of articles about former University of Manitoba and MoDo defender Erica Rieder as she moved from hockey to cycling. Erica's dream was to represent Canada at the Olympics, and she felt that she had taken the hockey dream as far as she could. That led to her jumping into the cycling world, and she was recently awarded funding and support through the RBC Training Ground to continue her development as she aims for the track in 2024.
What draws the two together is that Erica Rieder played for Canada at the 2017 FISU Universiade Games in Almaty, Kazakhstan when she was still attending university while Scout Watkins Southward will head to Lake Placid in January to represent Canada. There is another tie, however, and it's one that I discovered while doing some reading on Watkins Southward.
While she may be playing hockey for Queen's in the winter, Watkins Southward joined the RBC Training Ground in 2021 as a cyclist as she pursues her dreams of reaching the Olympics as well! At the time of the linked article's publication by Ian MacAlpine in The Whig, "Watkins Southward said she'll be training to become a cyclist but wants to finish her career with the Gaels before changing sports.
"She is early in the training ground process and eventually will be invited to a track to meet with coaches and see how she feels on a bike, along with doing some more basic sport testing."
According to the reporting done by MacAlpine, the pandemic's disruption to Watkins Southward's training regiment in the offseason in the summer of 2021 pushed her into getting into the RBC Training Ground.
"It made sense. It can't hurt to give it a go," she told MacAlpine. "We'll see how this goes and where it goes."
While it's still very early in the process for Watkins Southward, she was contacted by Cycling Canada after running through the first series of tests in 2021. It's likely there's a very remote chance that we could see Watkins Southward cycling for Canada in 2024, but 2028 or 2032 seems more realistic if she decides to put as much effort into cycling as she is for hockey and for her training. For now, though, it seems hockey is giving her chance to travel and show her skills on the ice!
"I would love this opportunity," she told MacAlpine in 2021 of potentially making Team Canada's cycling team in 2024. "Of course, it's an opportunity of a lifetime and I would be extremely excited and thankful for it, but I'm going try to finish my years here at Queen's with hockey and see if I can balance the two. If that's not possible, then it's definitely a decision I will have to make, but at this point in time I'm not seeing myself giving up hockey and I'm still hoping to keep on with this."
I'm quite glad she didn't give up on hockey just yet as she will be one of the women trying to capture gold in Lake Placid at the 2023 FISU Universiade Games. No one is expecting it to be easy as Canada's never finished with a medal other than silver or gold, so the squad with the maple leaves on their chests will enter the tournament with a target likely painted on their backs. Canada can use the hard work and effort put in by Scout Watkins Southward in trying to capture a medal in January's tournament.
While Erica earned a silver medal in Almaty in 2017, she too gave a heckuvan effort in helping Canada finish second in that tournament. Erica, of course, went on to win a U SPORTS National Championship in 2018 and captain the University of Manitoba's women's team in 2019 before joining MoDo of the SDHL where she had a few outstanding seasons playing on their blue line.
Comparatively, Watkins Southward is aiming for gold in Lake Placid, is trying to get Queen's to the same U SPORTS accolades that Rieder reached, and may perhaps seek professional hockey success like Erica did, but the dream of representing Canada at the Olympics is a dream they both share and are currently pursuing.
Follow your dreams, kids. Who knows where they'll take you!
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!
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