Three Grade 12 Surrey high school girls who grew up playing soccer together will continue their careers side-by-side at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV).
Harman Billen, Gurneet Dhaliwal and Jasmine Mangat have signed on to play for the UFV’s women’s soccer team starting in the fall of 2015. The girls have played together for nearly a decade on Surrey United youth teams and spent the past year on Surrey United’s under-18 team.
Rob Giesbrecht, head coach of the UFV Cascades, said all three teens are talented and they have the potential to be outstanding university players.
“They are competitive and will challenge for contributing roles immediately,” he said.
Surrey United Technical Director Jeff Clarke predicted the three players will have productive university careers.
“Their leadership, dedication and commitment to their team has been exemplary,” he said.
Billen is a midfielder, Dhaliwal plays forward and Mangat is a defender.
The girls have been awarded five-year scholarships from the school, Giesbrecht said.
Billen plans on studying business at UFV and hopes to one day open her own business.
She said all three of them are friends outside of playing soccer as well as on the field.
“We know each other really well,” she said. “We know how the others play. It’s a really positive thing for us and for the team.”
Mangat said it will be beneficial for them to attend university together and play on the same team.
“We have a chemistry with one another.”
Billen said everyone is excited to be Cascades.
“We have already started training Monday nights with the team and they are all super nice. I can’t wait to start playing.”