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Christie Shaner: Back In Brazil

Aug. 13, 2004

The Notre Dame women’s soccer team is having a wonderful time in Brazil, with all but one of the 26 players experiencing the country for the first time. That lone exception is sophomore defender Christie Shaner (Ambler, Pa.), who spent a full month in Rio de Janeiro at the end of her senior year in high school while compiling a photojournalistic senior report on the famed Flamengo men’s soccer team. Shaner promises to be one of the leaders of Notre Dame’s 2004 team, after earning 2003 BIG EAST Conference rookie-of-the-year honors and then getting called into two training camps with the U.S. Under-21 National Team program earlier this year. One of many members of the Irish squad who are accomplished on the field and in the classroom, Shaner’s 3.42 cumulative GPA sets her up for Academic All-America consideration in 2004. The academic-minded Shaner is a product of the impressive high school program at Germantown Academy. It was there that she was provided the opportunity to pursue her unique senior project that chronicled the operations of the Flamengo soccer club and paid tribute to Brazil’s passion for the game of “futbol.” The nearly five-hour layover at the Miami airport on the way down to Brazil earlier this week allowed Shaner a few moments to discuss her 2003 senior project in Rio, in addition to passing on her general thoughts about Brazil and reflecting on her career at Notre Dame:

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The official Flamengo crest.

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Q: How did this project come about? A: “As part of our senior year, we had to do a senior project and find a sponsor for it. Part of my project was to go to Brazil and document a men’s professional soccer team. My godmother knows some Brazilians and every year she hosts some of them. She asked them if I could stay with this family in Rio de Janeiro for a month as a favor. They were willing to take me in and I spent the month of May 2003 in Rio for this project.” Q: And how did you get hooked up with the great Flamengo soccer club? A: “It just so happened that the family that I stayed with, the father is one of the best optomologists in Rio de Janeiro. One of his patients is the vice-president of the soccer team Flamengo, which then became the team I documented.” Q: What was your approach to tackling this project? A: “My strategy was first to get in touch with the vice-president and then she would contact me for when practice times were and when the games were being played. She arranged for me to come to their training sessions at the Flamengo complex and there were bodyguards who would escort me over to the practice session and sit me down. From there, I’d be able to take a lot of pictures. Soccer, or futbol, in Brazil is the number-one sport and there are always people there taking photos and updating information on the team. They were at every single practice.” Q: How did you get around town? A: “The Flamengo complex is kind of like a country club and was only about a mile from where I lived. Sometimes I would carry a little backpack and just jog over to practice sessions or take a bike over, or the family would take me over for the night events.” Q: Now, had you already graduated or where did this fit into the semester? A: “Our school allows every senior the entire month of May off to do the senior project. During the month, you have to keep in touch with your sponsor and there has top be a certain amount of hours put into the work. Then, it was just a matter of coming back and presenting my project in the first week of June. And every student gives a 10-15 minute presentation of their project. A lot of the people worked behind a counter for businesses and some of the more interesting ones were some of the students had affiliations with Philadelphia sports teams.” Q: How did you structure your presentation? A: “There was so much valuable information that I had gained from my trip, so I did half of my presentation on the soccer aspect and half about the culture. I passed on some general phrases in Portugese and talked about the people, how laid-back and welcoming they are. Q: Can you tell us some Portugese phrases?

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The Irish witnessed the “fiery passion” of the Brazilian soccer fans earlier this week in a game at Ponta Preta.

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A: “When I first went to the Maracana Stadium, they won and usually if you are a foreigner and come into a game and support a team for the first time and they win, they call you a pequench (pronounced puh-kinch). And that means “hot foot.” It’s like a good luck thing. The vice-president called me pequench. Also, the phrase muito obrigado means thank you very much.” Q: How would you describe the Portugese language – many people just assume that the official language of Brazil is Spanish? A: “It’s just such a beautiful language. I’ve actually taken two semesters of Portugese at Notre Dame. I was kind of inspired after spending a month there. I had a background in Spanish. When I was speaking Spanish last year in Rio, they could understand me but I couldn’t understand anything they were saying back. There’s a lot of `ch’ sounds or accents over words that change words completely. There is a word cachorro that means dollar. Or like Sao Paulo, a lot of words end in that `ao’ sound and it makes it more like an `ow’. There is an ending for most words that is spelled “coes” but it is pronounced `soy-en’.”

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Shaner and her Notre Dame teammates were soaking up the Brazilian soccer atmosphere during the First Division men’s game at Ponta Preta.

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Q: In your presentation, what did you discuss about the game of Brazilian futbol? A: “The Brazilians are just so passionate about their game. And when I came back, it made me more passionate about the game. The people there care so much about futbol. It just kind of brings all of Brazil together and they can talk about it. If you don’t know your soccer, you don’t know anything. It’s more of an individual game in some aspects. I played soccer with one of the boys in my host family and his friends and it was funny because we played 5-on-5 pickup on a caged-in turf court and I remember I would be the only one defending most of the time. And I would say, `Tell your friends, we need to defend.’ And they would say, `No, that’ not the way we play. We don’t care how many goals go in the back of our net as long as we have more than they do.’ They are all about being goal-oriented.” Q: Are all the players well-known and popular or are there just a few top-level stars like in the United States, with other players more anonymous?

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Notre Dame and Santana Una exchanged gifts before their game in Campinas on Aug. 12.

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A: “People have their favorites and all of the players are well-known, it’s kind of interesting. Some of the stars also were on the national team so they were very well-known. A lot of the soccer players in Brazil play the game because they’ve had a rough life and don’t have an education and soccer was their way of having a successful life. That’s how they are making their living.” Q: How would you explain the Brazilian people in general? A: “It’s just the Brazilian way of life, things like every time you meet someone they give you a kiss on the cheek. That’s more personal than saying ‘hi.’ The people were so accommodating to me and went out of their way to help me.” Q: What do you think the Brazil experience will be like for your teammates? A: “It will be a bit of a culture shock in a way for our team because there is no middle class. You’re either rich or you’re poor. If you go to the cities, you see `hosinas’ and they are these cardboard shacks built up along the hillsides, one on top of another on top of another, by the thousands. And a couple families will live in one of those. … The rich Brazilians have a lot of servants. The family I stayed with had three servants. I never had to do anything for myself. This was a shock for me because I’m a very independent person and I would make my bed occasionally and I felt bad that the servants had to do those things. I didn’t even have to do my own laundry. … There’s also a little bit more random crime than you would see in most parts of the United States. Q: What are you looking forward to in this return trip to Brazil? A: “Every place you go is a new experience. I’m looking forward to getting to practice my Portugese and communicating with the Brazilians.”

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Christie Shaner (center) and Lauren Karas (left) played for the Fort Wayne Fever in the summer of ’04 while Nikki Westfall (right) also played in the W-League with the Cleveland Internationals.

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Q: You had a pretty busy summer, playing for the W-League’s Fort Wayne Fever, getting some great grades in summer school back at Notre Dame and also helping work at the soccer camps. How did you enjoy these past few months? A: “I liked it at Notre Dame during summer school, with a smaller student body and smaller classes. It reminded me of my high school. The Fort Wayne Fever was a great experience. We played with some players from different colleges, such as North Texas and Purdue, and that gives you a different style of play. I played at center back, alongside (ND teammate) Kim Lorenzen. Q: How would you rate your progress at Notre Dame and when did you become such a tough tackler? A: “I’ve become more confident. As a freshman, I didn’t really know what to expect. College soccer is just so much more physical, the pace is faster and you have to adapt to that. … Tackling hard always been a big part of the game but the fact that I’ve become stronger has made it more effective.

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Christie Shaner (right) and Gudrun Gunnarsdottir (left) are two of the many veteran options in the 2004 Notre Dame defense.

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Q: You have two veterans – Melissa Tancredi and Gudrun Gunnarsdottir – in the defense with a lot of experience as central defenders. They both are seniors but are very different players. What have you learned from them? A: “From `Canada’ (Tancredi), I have become a lot more hard-nosed and persistent, kind of laying everything on the line. She goes into every tackle or 1-v-1 with the attitude that `it’s either me or you and I’m going to come out on top. … With `Gunna, I have been able to see her great play in the finesse end, her touch and ability to see the field.”