INTERVIEW – This is the second and last part of this writer’s exclusive one-on-one interview with Leah Pais. In this one-on-one interview, Pais talks about her experience playing with Jade Kovacevic. She also looks at the big picture of professional women’s sports in Toronto and the whole of Canada.
Note: This is a continuation of the first part of the interview with Pais, which can be seen as a link near the end of this article.
Leah Pais: Playing with Jade Kovacevic and State of Women’s Sports in Canada
Question #5: What is it like playing with a former Vaughan Azzurri teammate, Jade Kovacevic, and being announced as the first two signings in the club’s history?
Yeah. I mean, it’s really, really exciting. And I just, I always think back to our first game at Vaughan. She just came back to League One after, I don’t know how many years, I think it was maybe one or two, and I heard her back in 2019 and I said, oh my goodness, she’s about to be my teammate, like, there’s no way. And I thought that we are having this season in the bag. It’s ours for sure, like the possibilities are endless.
And when we played that game, Jade scored three goals and I had two of her assists, and I was thinking to myself that this is going to be the start of something big, like the way she plays, and the way her and I just connect so effortlessly on the field and to just imagine, and you know, see how that’ll play out on the big stages. You know, the sky is the limit for us too, and I’m super excited to just get on the field again with someone like that.
READ MORE: First-Ever AFC Toronto Forward: Jade Kovacevic Player Profile
I think that her and I having such a relationship beforehand will bring a lot of positivity and a lot of fun to the team. I don’t know if you’ve seen part of Jade and I’s interview, but we just crack up together, and I think that’s important to have on a professional team is professionalism and skill and maturity, but also a fun side, because we want to show people that you can play on a professional team with your soccer bestie like it’s totally possible, and it’s honestly the best time and best place to do those things. And you know, I just, I’m so looking forward to the season. I just, I can’t wait to strap on the boots with her again.
Question #6: What have been some of the best moments in your career so far?
Definitely, number one, would be winning the 2023 national championship with Florida State. I played against Florida for three years before that, when I was at Pittsburgh and they are the epitome of college soccer, everything about that program, the coaches, the girls, the resources, the school itself is a family, and being able to do that with those girls in that year, in my final year of college soccer, was the best time. And I keep, you know, I keep reliving it over and over, because it’s honestly the best memory that I have, and I wish that girls in college now could experience that. So that’s definitely number one.
Number two has to be when I scored Pitts first-ever goal in the NCAA tournament. I remember we were playing Buffalo that day, and I actually got fouled in the box. So, I obviously went down, and the ref didn’t call it, and so I just laid there for about a minute or two, and I see that the ball gets searched back into the box. And I quickly, because I hear like, “Leah get up, Leah get up.” So, I get up, and no one’s marking me, and I just got a free header, and I scored. And that feeling of just doing something for your team, for your school, representing the community and you know, the club that you play for, to me, there’s no better feeling. And so, I instantly ran over to the girls. I remember feeling this rush of excitement and joy like there’s five minutes left in the game. We can pull this off, and we can go to the next round of the tournament. And I still get chills watching the video, because it was such a fun time, and that is something I’ll cherish forever, too.
And my third one will have to be when I scored four goals, when I was at Þróttur against Ungmennafélagið Afturelding, in the quarter-finals of our Milk Cup (also known as the Icelandic Women’s Football Cup). I think it was one of the first games that I played up top or winger. And I think I just been holding in all the goals, and I just scored all of them at once. And to score, you know, more than a hat trick, and in my first professional season, was a really fun time. We had a lot of supporters. The girls were excited, and we were moving on to the semifinals for the first time in, I think, a couple of years, or maybe two years. So that was a really exciting time. And yeah, those would definitely be my top three moments.
Question #7: Just want to know your opinion on the rise of professional women’s sports teams in Canada, particularly in Toronto.
I think it’s about time that female athletes have got the recognition that they deserve, over you know, the past however many years, have kept building and growing our, you know, clubs and our teams and our leagues, and we’ve been adding more and more to the spectrum, like the WNBA, the professional basketball team (it was not the time the interview took place that the team would be named the Toronto Tempo), and we’re now including a professional football (soccer) league for women. And I think that it’s about time that we get rewarded for our efforts.
You know, I think it was the percentage or the rate, it used to be what, like three in every 10 girls would join sports (Source: Approximately correct with the study from Canadian Women and Sport). And to me, that’s so heartbreaking, because my whole personality is sports. Every time I go meet a family member or, you know, a long-distance friend, they always say to me, “Hey, how’s soccer going? You still playing?”
READ MORE: A WNBA Toronto Team: What It Means for Canadian Basketball?
That’s the first question I’ve been asked for the past 23 years. And without that, I don’t know what would define me, so specifically, if that makes sense. To me, sports are a way to feel peace and joy, but specifically, it’s a way to express myself without using words. And I say that because you can put your personality on the field, and people would never truly know who you are as an individual, and so that would want to make them, you know, learn more about you.
And I know that there are so many talented young girls in Canada, and just to see that we’re finally developing a stage for them to look forward to and for them to, you know, hopefully aspire to play on that one day. It’s unreal to me, and it’s, it’s so deserving, and it’s just so amazing, like little girls can now dream of playing professionally in Toronto. I think that’ll spark more interest, and that three out of 10 will definitely increase, because now they have something to look forward to.
And as I said before, now there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. So, I just, I find it amazing, and I just hope that there will be more recognition for female athletes here and that the supporters of Toronto itself, but also Canada as a whole, will continue to push the game for women’s sports and everything that is needed for it.
READ MORE: The Northern Super League is Born
Leah Pais: Interview Article Summary
READ MORE: Leah Pais: The Person Behind the Mask (Part One)
From these two interview articles, one can understand the person Pais has become. The first interview article looked more closely at Pais, the person, while the second article looks more at the bigger picture such as her personal accomplishments, the potential dynamic of playing with Kovacevic again, and the state of professional women sports in Canada.
As Pais mentioned above, she played her final college year with the Florida State Seminoles, scoring two goals in 17 games and winning the national title. Pais also found success with Vaughan Azzurri, scoring 13 goals in 21 games from 2017-19 and scoring 21 goals in 24 games from 2022-23. She has a lot of accolades with Vaughan, including being the 2019 L1O Young Player of the Year as well as the L1O All-Star First Team in 2019 and 2023 as well as the L10 All-Star Second Team in 2022.
READ MORE: AFC Toronto Logo and Stadium: York Lions Stadium
There is a lot to look forward to with Pais and it will be interesting to see how she does with her local pro team, AFC Toronto, at York Lions Stadium. This includes Pais who said this about playing with AFC Toronto (Source: Ontario Soccer):
The interview link of Kovacevic and Pais can be seen here: Get to Know Leah Pais with Jade Kovacevic!
A big thanks to both Leah Pais and AFC Toronto for making this happen. The interview took place on Thursday, November. 28, 2024.
Photo Credit: AFC Toronto on November 20, 2024.
