The NAIT Ooks women's soccer team is ready to hit the field for the 2022/23 season, led by their new head coach, Alesha Weicker-Pasternak. After losing a heartbreaking 1-0 game to the SAIT Trojans in the ACAC 2021/22 Championship, the Ooks are looking to kick it up a notch this season. 

Weicker-Pasternak is no stranger to collegiate sports. Before transferring to the Concordia Thunder, she played post-secondary soccer for the MacEwan Griffins. She hit her high with the Concordia Thunder winning the CCAA National Championship. Weicker-Pasternak was named a CCAA National MVP that season. Weicker-Pasternak was named assistant coach of the Concordia Thunder from 2011-2013 before accepting an assistant coach position with the MacEwan Griffins. She was the assistant coach of the Griffins from 2013-2017, the highlight of her career with the Griffins came in 2013 when they went undefeated to win the CCAA National Championship. Weicker-Pasternak made her NAIT Ooks coaching debut in the 2021/22 season as the assistant coach to Jeff Paulus, so she is familiar with the team she is taking over this season. 

The team is returning strong with a great core of returning players, but the new players are ones to watch. The recruits for this season are Carly Speelman, Sarah Weremczuk, Erika Ippolito, Irelyn Spelt, Haley Thompson, and Lamisi Sirett. 

"They will be great additions to the program and will make an impact with the team right from the start. I am excited to watch them grow and develop over the course of the season and learn from our veteran players," said Weicker-Pasternak.

All three players named to the ACAC All-Conference last year, Kailey Harder, Eleni Stamatakis, and Sarah Moorji, will return to play another season with the Ooks, but this year will still be far from easy. 

"I think we will have our challenges, but these challenges will help us to become a better team for when it matters most," said Weicker-Pasternak. "We have a quality group who, on any given day, will rise up and perform. We are a complete team where we are stronger as a group than we are as individuals."

The NAIT Ooks soccer season goes from September 11th to October 23rd. The ACAC Championship will be held in Lethbridge October 28th-30th. The season will come to a close at Champlain College Saint-Lambert, in Saint-Lambert, QC, on November 9th-12th for the CCAA National Championship. 

The NAIT Ooks home-opener is Sunday, September 11th, at 2:00 PM at the St. Albert Soccer Association.