Name: Joey Kewin
Age: 18
Hometown: London, Ont.
Sport: Men’s soccer
Position: Outside midfield
Years played: 12
Strength: Dribbling
Goal for the season: Becoming OUA champions and contending again for the CIS national championships.  

For first-year commerce student Joey Kewin, Carleton was always at the top of his list. The fact that the men’s varsity soccer team had a great track record – they finished in fifth place at the 2008 Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) men’s championship – merely sealed the deal. “We’re a young team this year,” said Kewin, “but . . . what we lack in experience we make up for in skill and team chemistry.”

Kewin first started playing soccer to follow in the footsteps of his older brother who he has always admired. But it is the love he discovered for the sport during his first game that keeps him coming back.

“I think I bring creativity to the team,” he said. “I try to expand the field . . . and expose the rightback with speed – giving the fullbacks another problem besides handling our speedy strikers.”

Name: Michelle Kovesi
Age: 18
Hometown: Ottawa, Ont.
Sport: Women’s field hockey
Position: Midfield/Forward
Years played: 4
Strength: Ball handling
Goal for the season: To think faster on her feet – “should I pass or shoot?”

When it’s right, it’s right. And for Michelle Kovesi, picking up that field hockey stick in Grade 9 gym class just felt right.

“Until then, I’d never even heard of field hockey,” she said. “But I just loved it and I knew it was my sport.”

Now the first-year math student has been invited to help the Carleton varsity team beat its past three consecutive sixth-place finishes.

Though the season is short, the schedule is demanding with a practice or game every day between now and November.

Yet Kovesi said she believes there will still be plenty of time for her work ethic and constant “pushing to the max” to make a difference on the field.

Name: Trevor Anzai
Age: 18
Hometown: Ottawa, Ont.
Sport: Swimming
Years in the Pool: 8
Strongest strokes: Individual medley and butterfly
Goal for the season: Rank within the top 10 in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA)

The Carleton swim team may be small, but it is definitely much stronger with the addition of Trevor Anzai, the first-year commerce student whose father initiated the co-ed varsity team back in the ‘80s.

“I’m trying to continue the tradition,” said Anzai. “You know, like father like son.”

But Anzai – who has made the provincial finals, medaled at regional championships and made age group nationals with his butterfly stroke – sticks with swimming because he is good at it in his own right.

Besides discipline and experience, Anzai said he also brings something else to the team: optimism.

“I know the Gee-Gees have a really good swim team, but I opted to stay at Carleton,” said Anzai.

“I hope to make this team better – that’s what I’m going to try to do . . . My personal goals are to go to OUAs, compete there, maybe rank top 10 with the Ravens, and just have fun training and working hard.”