ST. BONAVENTURE — Skiing within the Alps or racing alongside a zipper line at speeds nearing 70 miles per hour are typical actions for St. Bonaventure University soccer goalie Chiara Gottinger, who grew up in an energetic, outside household in Austria.
A love of soccer and an purpose of taking part in on the Division I stage within the United States introduced her to St. Bonaventure. The associates she’s made and the agricultural magnificence of campus have saved her right here.
The sophomore sports activities administration main mentioned that the dimensions and friendliness of campus remind her of her hometown of Pirching am Traubenberg, positioned within the southeastern nook of Austria, inhabitants roughly 2,000. Though German is her first language, she has been talking English since grade college.
“From the very beginning, I felt really comfortable with the university,” Gottinger mentioned. “I saw pictures of campus and thought to myself that Bonaventure could be a good fit for me.”
Gottinger serves as a goalkeeper for Bona’s Division I girls’s soccer staff and was twice named the Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Week in the course of the fall 2022 season.
“I felt honored, but I also thought that it’s not a big deal — until everybody on my team freaked out and shared it on social media,” Gottinger mentioned with a smile.
She famous that the awards and recognition are a terrific complement to the arduous work she and her teammates put forth each day, although added that she does not play for the awards.
“I play because of my love for soccer.”
That ardour — alongside along with her dedication and grit — are evidenced in her season stats. Gottinger led all of NCAA Division I with a complete of 163 saves this previous fall. Following her freshman yr, she was named to the Atlantic 10 All-Conference groups.
“Our coach always said the girls are like sisters and this season we were able to experience that more than ever. We are a tight team, basically together 24/7, whether it is on the field, in training or in the locker room,” Gottinger mentioned.
During her time with the ladies’s soccer staff, Gottinger has discovered friendships that may final a lifetime. One such bond is along with her teammate and roommate Elisabeth Ptacek, a sophomore advertising main from Hudson, Ohio.
Gottinger recollects assembly Ptacek and her mother and father in the course of the preseason and immediately feeling welcomed when Ptacek’s mom mentioned to her, “You are part of our family now.”
Both of Ptacek’s mother and father performed soccer collegiately and have invited Gottinger to spend the vacations with them. During the season, Gottinger’s and Ptacek’s household met for the primary time when Gottinger’s household traveled to the U.S. to watch her play.
“Not only is she a great teammate and roommate, she is also a fantastic friend,” mentioned Ptacek. “I have thoroughly enjoyed playing with and getting to know Chiara these past two seasons.”
Gottinger started her soccer profession on the age of 6 with an all-boys staff in Austria. Seven years later, she was half of a women youth staff that competed on the nationwide stage throughout the nation and claimed the primary championship title within the women competitors for Styria. She then went on to play for the ladies’s staff of the membership SK Sturm Graz, successful a second league championship in 2017-18. She remembers that as a really particular time.
“It was the first women’s title in club history, and it was my first season not playing at the youth level,” she mentioned.
Gottinger labored with a soccer company in Austria to have the ability to play in America, starting the recruiting course of in the course of the second lockdown of COVID.
“At first, I didn’t think I was going to become a DI player as the agency told me I would be likely to play Division II because schools want more American soccer players,” Gottinger mentioned. “But only Division I schools reached out to me. I was like, ‘wow, that is crazy.'”
Since then, Gottinger has managed to make St. Bonaventure her residence away from residence. Her favourite place to hang around round campus when she isn’t on the soccer discipline is the Hickey Dining Hall. She spends loads of time with teammates there, engaged on assignments or simply sitting and speaking.
“When you go to university in Austria, you really just go there to study and then you go back home. You don’t play for your university’s soccer team, and you don’t live on campus. It is just a completely different experience. So even though I am far from home, it is still nice here. I can really focus on soccer and studying. I love this campus,” Gottinger mentioned.
Gottinger seems ahead to having a locker room devoted to the ladies’s soccer staff with the brand new fundraising marketing campaign, A Bolder Bonaventure: Ignite. Inspire. Invest. One of the marketing campaign’s high priorities is to rework St. Bonaventure’s athletics amenities and guarantee a strongly aggressive Division I expertise for each student-athlete.
“There are so many things I am excited about, but I am most excited for the locker rooms. As a team we spend so much time in that area. When your team has a dedicated locker room, your stuff is always there, and not in your room,” Gottinger mentioned. “If every single team has a locker room, it also shows that every team gets treated the same.”
Gottinger is at all times searching for alternatives to enhance her abilities on and off the sphere.
“As a goalkeeper, you are watching everyone and observing their next move. I learn a lot from just observing people’s movements,” Gottinger mentioned.
She desires of someday working with knowledgeable sports activities membership in Europe and interacting extra with the followers.
The potentialities are limitless as she continues to shine in her soccer profession.
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