FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska - A Fort Wainwright Soldier recently returned from Cherbourg, France, where she competed in the Conseil International du Sport Militaire's 6th World Military Women's Soccer Championship.
Capt. Michelle Veach, Army Corps of Engineers, was selected to represent the United States along with three other Soldiers. The team was selected from a field of players who attended a trial camp at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. The remainder of the 18-member team were 10 members of the Air Force, two from the Navy and two from the Marine Corps.
"I tried out two times before, but this was the first time I made it," Veach said. "I was astonished. I didn't think that I played any different than last year, but... the third time is a charm."
"She was ready and came focused. As soon as she stepped on the field for practice, my assistant coach and I knew right away that she was on the team," said Augustin Mendez, who has been coaching the team for three years.
"She is one of those players that is hard to find. She is very fast, she is very tenacious. You can find lots of soccer players that have one or the other, but she has both. She has good technical skills and she defends," Mendez said.
Veach said the tryouts are "intense." We usually have three days of tryouts. We do two practices a day, usually last about an hour and a half. We do drills, sprinting. We scrimmage local teams in the area. Usually if they have a travel team, or a semi-pro team, we will do that."
After the tryouts at MacDill the team traveled directly to France for the tournament. The United States ended up in seventh place after losing to Germany 0-3, the Netherlands 0-1, and South Korea 0-1. They finished the tournament holding Canada to a scoreless game after double overtime. Canada ended up in the bottom spot, although they had the same win-loss record at the U.S. because they had more points scored against them in previous games.
"We stayed on a French Naval Base. All the teams stayed there, military service women for their respective countries," eight in all, Veach said. "On the first day we had this big opening ceremony; we were all in our dress uniforms. We walked out on the field with our French helpers,
we were all lined up behind our flag. We really couldn't understand much because it was all in French."
She started in every game and played the full game each time in the position of right fullback.
Before each game the starting players exchanged tokens from their respective countries. For her that was one of the two highlights of the games. The other was the opportunity to reunite with girls she had played soccer with at West Point.
Veach started playing soccer when she was five years old and although she played several sports growing up, she prefers soccer. "I am better with my feet than my hands she said.
She played for a local high school, in the Olympic Development Program and in several community leagues before being recruited by West Point.
While attending the United States Military Preparatory School in Fort Monmouth, NJ, she played on the men's soccer squad as a defender for both years. At West Point she started in every game, except for three when she was injured.
Veach played on the All-Army Soccer Team in 2006, on a German women's team while stationed in Heidelberg and with the Fairbanks Women's soccer outdoor and indoor league during the 2009/2010 season.
Veach plans to try out for the Army World Games which will take place in Rio de Janeiro next year. "It sounds amazing," she said.
Veach's life is not all about sports. She is the proud mother of three-year-old Austen who is the featured subject of the scrapbooks she creates in her spare time. Veach has been reassigned to Pennsylvania to command a recruiting company and is working on a second Masters degree, in Aeronautical Science. She currently holds a Bachelors in Aeronautical Engineering and a Masters in Project Management. Veach hopes to teach at West Point someday. She was recently contacted and asked if she was interested in applying for a position with the Math Department.
In addition to her family, the Army, soccer and her continuing education, Veach will be competing in October's Army 10-miler in Washington, D.C. Although she did complete a marathon in Athens, Greece, in 2006, she is training hard for the event by running, swimming and lifting weights.
"I hope she continues this and comes back the next year and the next year after that. She is a very valuable asset" on and off the field, Mendez said
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