WINNIPEG — A 13-year-old soccer star from Winnipeg is motivated to earn a Team Canada roster spot.
Emerson Kidd is currently one of the youngest players training full time at the national development centre at the University of Manitoba, where scouts come to select players for Canadian teams.
“We wake up and then practice is at 7… then we just work on the certain skill of the day and then do drills involving that,” said Emerson.
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The competitive spirit is in Emerson’s blood. Her dad Trevor Kidd was an NHL goalie for more than a decade. Now, he’s her coach.
“During my career we were in Florida and Carolina and obviously not huge hockey states… at that time soccer and swimming and being on the beach was on the radar for them,” said Kidd.
Emerson is the youngest of three soccer playing sisters and the family describes her as “the gritty one” because of her fight on the field.
“She gets in there and fights even if they’re older than her, she doesn’t care,” said her sister Taylor Kidd who now plays soccer on scholarship at the University of Texas-El Paso.
Last year at an elite training camp, Emerson had the chance to scrimmage with Team Canada’s Desiree Scott, who is also from Winnipeg. She was inspired after meeting ‘the destroyer’ and now models her game after the midfielder.
“I want to be as motivated as her and how she carries herself, I just want to be like her,” said Emerson.
Now she is excited to watch Scott compete for Canada at the FIFA Women’s World Cup starting June 6, hoping to play on the same team in a few years.
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