Mikalsen Honing Skills On Jamaican National Team

By Joe Corley

Erin Mikalsen certainly will be battle-tested by the time the ECU women's soccer team opens its season on Aug. 17 at Old Dominion.

Mikalsen, who is entering her second season with the Pirates, has kept busy this summer. In addition to playing for the Orlando-based Florida Krush in the Women's Premier Soccer League, she is logging time on the Jamaican national team. She is leaving today, July 11, for a one-week camp in Kingston, Jamaica, before heading on to the Central American and Caribbean Games in Barranquilla, Colombia, with games against Venezuela on July 19, Costa Rica on July 21 and Colombia on July 23. The semifinals are July 25 and 26, with the final set for July 30.

"This definitely will keep me in shape," Mikalsen said. "All the Jamaican girls, and really all the players at this level, are very fast."

Mikalsen was born and raised in Florida, where she picked up soccer at a relatively late age before quickly advancing up the ranks and becoming a key player at Oviedo High School near Orlando and on her club team, the Florida Krush. It was through a coach with the Krush that she wound up on the Jamaican U-17 team in 2015.

Hue Menzies has been the executive director of the Krush since 2012 and the technical director of the Jamaican women's national team since 2015. He knew that because of Mikalsen's heritage — her mother is of Chinese and Jamaican lineage, and her grandparents on her mother's side are Jamaican — she is eligible to represent Jamaica.

"When (Menzies) was my club coach, he recommended me to try out and play with them," said Mikalsen, whose parents are Kevin and Georgine Mikalsen. "I went to their training camp. It wasn't really a 'tryout' tryout, I just went to camp and was invited back to play in their games. The training was in Jamaica, and then we went straight to Puerto Rico to play."

That tournament was the U-17 Caribbean Football Union Championships in November 2015. Jamaica won, edging Haiti 2-1 in the final.

"It was very scary, my first time out of the country to play against other countries," Mikalsen said. "It was also really my first time meeting all the girls and staying with them. It was nerve-racking, but very exciting."

She also has played for the Jamaican U-18 and U-20 teams, but the tournament in Colombia will be her first action on the senior team. The Central American and Caribbean Games also serve as a qualifier for the next Pan Am Games, which will be held July 26-Aug. 11, 2019, in Lima, Peru.

Mikalsen didn't start playing soccer until around the age of 10, but quickly discovered she had a talent for it. She advanced through the rec leagues rapidly, then the club teams, and then the higher-level club teams.

She was a four-year starter at left back for Oviedo, which was a Florida Class 5A state semifinalist her freshman year, state runner-up her sophomore year, and state champion her junior and senior years.

During the recruiting process, Mikalsen found a good fit at ECU. Academics had a lot to do with it.

"I wanted to leave Florida because I wanted to be somewhere different," she said. "The cards fell that way. ECU has the major I wanted, and it's a very good program. I'm in rehabilitation services, and I want to go into occupational therapy."

But first she has to make her way though this summer. She will return to Greenville on Aug. 2. She might, however, play with the Jamaican team again, if she makes the list for the national team for the CONCACAF Women's Championship qualification. Camp for that will be Aug. 16-20, and the games — all in the National Stadium in Kingston — will be Aug. 25-Sept. 2.

"Getting to travel and see all the culture is definitely the best part of being on the team, especially since I'm not from Jamaica," Mikalsen said. "We call (the other players on the team) the locals because it's there team and we're outsiders. They teach us stuff about their lives and tell us how it is at home. It's a bit of culture shock. And they experience that the other way when they come up to the United States."

Players Mentioned

Erin Mikalsen

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