Freshman Romagnuolo brings international flair to Syracuse
Tina Romagnuolo remembers running from the sidelines to join the mob of her teammates on the field in Puebla, Mexico. The trophy ceremony, the television crews, the flashbulbs overwhelming her and her Canadian national teammates after their dramatic 1-0 win over the United States at the 2008 CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association of Football) women’s under-20 championship.
All of this is now a fond memory as she jogs up and down Syracuse’s Hookway Field, across from South Campus, in preparation for her first home game with the SU women’s soccer team.
To some of her teammates, Romagnuolo has already done it all. The redshirt freshman missed a year with the Orange because she was chosen to play with the U-20 Canadian national team, where she participated in training camps in Germany, Chile and all over Canada and the U.S.
Yet for Romagnuolo, the journey is just beginning. One of her biggest goals still lies on the horizon: to help Syracuse win its first Big East title in team history.
‘She’s fearless,’ head coach Phil Wheddon said. ‘She works tirelessly and she throws her body around. She puts herself in goal scoring positions, and the way she does that is something that players without that type of international experience find it hard to do.’
The Orange hopes Romagnuolo will breathe life into a rebuilding team that lost eight seniors and finished fourth-to-last in the Big East last fall. The midfielder has already scored four of the team’s five goals in the nine games the Orange (3-4-2, 0-1-0) has played, all of which have been on the road.
And playing away from home is something Romagnuolo has grown accustomed to in these past five years.
‘I wasn’t here last year for the season, so I missed out on that,’ Romagnuolo said. ‘They didn’t do very well last season, so I think just coming in here I wanted to change that and at least win the Big East.’
Romagnuolo’s journey through international soccer to Syracuse has taken her to three continents and dozens of countries. Since her freshman year in high school, she has lit up the international soccer scene. In 2005, she joined the U-15 Canadian national team, traveling to Leipzig, Germany, where she faced Germany, Scotland and the Netherlands in a round-robin tournament. She returned to Germany the following year, this time in Frankfurt, with the U-16 Girls National Team tour.
Former women’s soccer head coach Patrick Farmer had heard of Romagnuolo’s talent and decided to pursue her for the Orange during the 2007 season. When Wheddon was hired as Farmer’s replacement the next year, Wheddon and assistant coach Robyn Pepicelli visited Romagnuolo at her home outside of Toronto to encourage her to attend Syracuse.
After being scouted by multiple Division I teams, including Connecticut, Penn State and West Virginia, Romagnuolo decided on Syracuse. Not only was the challenge of playing for SU enticing, but the proximity of Syracuse to her hometown meant her parents would be able to watch her games – a novelty for the Romagnuolos.
‘I had quite a bit of choices,’ Romagnuolo said, ‘but when it came down to it, I thought it would be kind of cool to come to Syracuse to see if I could change the atmosphere here and bring up the team to win the Big East.’
Yet Romagnuolo would have to wait to help the Orange. She had made her decision to attend Syracuse, but continued to play with Team Ontario throughout her junior year of high school. She traveled around Canada and the U.S. on multiple occasions to participate in two-week camps and play in dozens of tournaments, hoping to catch the eye of scouts from the U-20 national team.
The dedication paid off, as she was asked to go the National Training Center in Vancouver to practice with the Canadian National team on a full-time basis to prepare for the U-20 World Cup in Chile.
‘I actually had to drop out of high school,’ Romagnuolo said. ‘I finished school online because I moved out in Vancouver to train full-time, so it was hard. It’s just a lot of work you have to put into it, but if you love it, it comes easily.’
Romagnuolo finished her term with the Canadian National team in the fall of 2008, returning to Syracuse for the spring semester. She was joining a different team and atmosphere. She was no longer performing on an international stage where soccer dominated the sports media. Yet she embraced the new situation.
‘I remember the level of her play and the speed of her play and everything else was a lot faster than everybody else,’ Wheddon said. ‘She brought some players along with her. There were some noticeable differences in some of our players as they were around her more in the first couple weeks. There were a lot of looks like, ‘Oh wow, this is the type of player we’re bringing in, that’s awesome!”
After a spring to get acquainted with Syracuse soccer, she returned home during the summer to play for the Ottawa Fury, a premier women’s soccer team in North America. She scored two goals and amassed eight points, playing in all 14 games to help the Fury win its division.
Her play with the Fury paid off. She returned this fall refreshed and ready for the challenge of playing for the Orange, and the results have shown on the field.
‘Obviously, her goals have been huge for our team,’ senior forward Tessa MacDougall said, ‘but it’s also the stuff in practice that we don’t see that also pushes the team. She always works hard. She’s really fit, she takes care of everything like that, and it makes everyone else on the team work themselves harder.’
Romagnuolo hopes to play for Team Canada in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, but her immediate goal is this season in Syracuse and reaching the Big East tournament. Romagnuolo is gearing up for her first home game tonight against Providence at SU Soccer Stadium – a place she can call home for the next few years, at least.
Wheddon emphasized Romagnuolo’s presence has been integral to the team’s success so far this year, especially in light of the season-ending surgery to last year’s leading scorer Megan Bellingham. But he has been careful not to put added pressure on his new top scorer.
‘She has a great sense for the game, and she’s used to having very good players around her,’ Wheddon said. ‘Sometimes she feels she has to do too much and she has something to live up to. I’m trying not to put any pressure on her. She’s a very good player and sometimes if she simplifies her game she will be even better.’
