Post-secondary studies can be stressful and arduous and challenging — and for Karly Hellstrom, they’re an absolute godsend.
The 23-year-old graduate of Lasalle Secondary School recently completed a five-year career with the Kent State Golden Flashes, following in the soccer footsteps of older sister Jenna.
The three-time Academic all-MAC honouree, who led the conference in assists in 2021, also lost an entire season to injury (2018) in addition to dealing with the obvious cancellations and limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A wonderful summer is in store for the speedy winger/wingback with the recent news of her acceptance into a master’s of physiotherapy program at the University of Toronto combined with the fact that she has been welcomed with open arms by Blues women’s soccer associate head coach Angelo Cavalluzzo and company, and her remaining eligibility as a player.
“I think that with my undergraduate degree, I was very involved with my academics and very involved with my athletics as well,” Hellstrom said. “It will be challenging on both sides, but I’m very excited and willing to take on the challenge. It’s about being able to time-manage. At Kent, I was able to learn a lot about myself and what I needed to do to make sure that it was definitely manageable.”
While there were a few different lines of study that would come up in discussions in recent months as Hellstrom pondered her next steps, there is absolutely no doubt the pursuit of knowledge in the field of physiotherapy was constantly up near the top of that list.
“This is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time,” she said. “I can remember going to Chris Binks’ clinic (Advantage Physiotherapy and Sports Injury) and volunteering at the time. I fell in love with it that summer.”
“But soccer has always been my one passion that I’ve always fallen back on.”
Given that her father, Peter, is the athletic director at Laurentian University and that Hellstrom has worked extensively over the years with LU women’s soccer coaches Brian Ashton and Matt Cootes, there was some hope — albeit faint — that folks might be able to see her perform in the fall with regularity in her hometown.
“It just wasn’t a match with the program,” Hellstrom said. “I wanted to do a master’s in physiotherapy and unfortunately, Laurentian does not have that program … It would have been amazing, and it will definitely be weird being on the other side.”
Despite boasting winning records far more often than not, the U of T Blues have never captured an OUA banner in women’s soccer. Hellstrom is hopeful that this might be the year.
“We should have a pretty strong program this year,” she said. “The coach is speaking highly of the team and what we have coming in.
“Hopefully, when we get together, we can mesh everything in the couple of weeks that we have.”
With Jenna having just completed another successful year of professional soccer in Sweden, one wonders if little sister might be inclined to give that scene a shot, in spite of her obvious pre-disposition towards the more academic side of the student-athlete relationship.
“I would never completely shut the door on it,” Hellstrom said. “If I was not able to get into grad school (right away), I was thinking about maybe going overseas and playing for however long it took to get into grad school. I will still only be 25 when I graduate and if I decide that I’m not quite ready to hang up the cleats just yet, I would be okay to go over and continue playing and not go right into my career (in physiotherapy).”
In the meantime, Hellstrom can be found working hard, fine-tuning her craft with the Impact U21 men’s team at practice sessions and workouts. Come September, she would love to hit the ground running. “I think it’s one of those things where you never know how ready you are until you step on that field during pre-season,” she offered.
“I think if I had to step on the field tomorrow, I could pull it all together. I’ve never been someone who is not going to work hard.”
Academically and athletically, that truism would appear to apply.
Randy Pascal is a sportswriter in Greater Sudbury. Pursuit is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.
